Over the past 18 months, Kate and Laura Mulleavy have made a promise to meet their woman where she is. When she was at home, they gave her house dresses and silken pajamas, and when she was slowly returning to going out, they sent out floral leggings and sequined mini suits. Their spring 2022 collection was a proper declaration of re-emergence, of spiritual glitz, and of reconnecting to nature.
From the first white dress with trailing black triangles at the sleeve to the last mushroom printed bubble dress, this was a collection meant for movement. It helped push the Mulleavys’ message that after rains and scorching heat, today was a blissful and windy 70 degrees. Gusts flared out their hems, made their beaded fringe dance, and blew up their circular bubble dresses to spectacular effect. The Rodarte woman, once a wallflower, was now in the height of her natural power. Ornately beaded blazers offered her something relatively new to wear, too—even ornately beaded anemone and shell dresses had a newfound lightness to them.
And then, with the speakers crackling under a vibrato of aaaaahhhhhs, came a sunset of draped dresses and barefoot models. Was it a sun salutation, an homage to cacti, or a cult offering? In the minds of the Mulleavy sisters it was gestural, turning their models into a painter’s palette to celebrate the raw beauty of the earth. It’s a personal message for them: Their mother is an artist, and their father is a botanist specializing in fungi. That blossoming mushroom finale dress was hand drawn by their mother and, in a way, about their father. So much ink has been spilled about the dynamic between Kate and Laura, but their mighty artistry was clearly cultivated and nurtured by their parents. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree; and the Rodarte woman will feel comforted and extra glam in the family’s beautiful new collection.
