Last March, I was one of the many people shocked by the horrible news that Zaha Hadid had passed away at only 65 years old. One of my favorite architects, she had broken down so many barriers in what has traditionally been a male dominated industry. An Iraqi-born, British architect, she was the first woman to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize. The tragedy of her passing is all the more poignant because this was a woman at the height of her career—I began researching her more, and realized how inspiring her aesthetic is to me. Her work was constantly in my mind as I started designing the Spring 2017 collection.
Zaha was known as “the Queen of the Curve,” and her designs made me want to examine how a garment moves over and around the body. I started exploring how pintucked seams can give garments a structured, three-dimensional quality, while highlighting a greater sense of movement.
For example, in the VANDA shrug, pintucked seams flow from the edge of the collar down to the wrist and across the back, creating an energy across the surface of the fabric. Similarly, the AMANI jacket features seams that outline the shoulder to the wrist, but reveal a cutaway window at the back of the neck, creating an interplay between positive and negative space. Pintucked seams in the BIBI and AMAL dresses move diagonally down from the torso, jutting out into asymmetric hems, again creating weight and movement.
The colors for spring center around muted neutrals with flashes of rich colors. I love how Smoke, a dusty brown, plays against our new blue, Rain, and an uplifting yellow, Sun. Carrying over from Resort, the bright and exotic Turquoise and graphic black and white Stripe 17 also play beautifully into Spring’s palette.
I invite you to visit us at our Chicago Style Studio to try Spring’s new designs, or contact a stylist by emailing sherra@mariapinto.com to have a Pinto Box shipped to you with customized selections from the collection for you to try!
MARIA