For resort 2025, Tory Burch was thinking about the joy of dressing. Not that organized, uniform type of dress but rather the spontaneity of throwing together a look, resulting in “unplanned cool and unfussy. Style that wasn’t really thought out and comes together in a more eclectic and little more relaxed way as well,” Burch said during a preview.
“The thing that made me think about this to begin with is I never have any time to think about an outfit. Also, when I don’t, I’m putting things so quickly together and I like that spontaneity. I thought that this represented spontaneity, and it wasn’t planned style. It’s stylish, but hopefully that’s not planned,” she explained.
Since the brand’s directional shift in 2021 — or as Burch describes it, “the concept of starting again” — distinct codes have emerged from the house that she continues to nail each season, even with the more commercial outings.
In that vein, resort mixed vintage and modern; classic and offbeat; feminine and masculine, and high and low styles amplified by the continued evolution of her design language.
For instance, the exploration of unconventional materials and dialog of volume and architectural form resulted in stellar bright green and red ostrich-embossed and glazed cotton lampshade skirts. They were styled with nods to boho-chic à la a brown fur-like (it was actually brushed up viscose) coat, crystal-studded paisley jacquard halter top, Lee Radziwill shopper totes and knee-high ruby calf “banana heel” boots.
There was also an intriguing dialog of expanding ladylike dress with cooler eccentricity, seen in lightweight, laser-cut engineered “upholstery fabric” layers (with matching coat and soft, fishnet-style underpinnings); a three-piece, white pressed broomstick crochet ensemble and an Italian wool bouclé set.
“It’s so much fun because I feel like the more we go, the more experimentation we are trying, but also I want to keep sort of a sense of who we are. It’s finding that balance where it becomes an interesting input moving forward, but also, I’m really focused on the concept of longevity and making pieces that will last. That you’ll want to wear in five and 10 years from now. That it’s about, ‘You can’t place it,’ and you can’t say, ‘That looks like what decade or what season,’” she said.
Burch pointed out that the collection’s lightweight chandelier earrings were “an exercise in weight,” but the idea seemingly stemmed throughout the collection via her knack for contrasting the artisanal versus casual. A cut-pile velvet fluid skirt with chocolate paisley blazer; New Romantics-tinged shirting with sporty Bermuda shorts, and soft striped Japanese T-shirt layers with utilitarian cargo pants and jackets with exposed snaps, workwear D-rings and oversized pockets hit all the marks.
Even within Burch’s more evening looks, like standout crystal-studded and knotted asymmetric paper jersey goddess gowns or faux-animal patterned and punchy-hued accessories, there were multiple ways for a woman to mix, match and end up with an eye-catching, playful ensemble all her own.