Colours and textures reminiscent of Picasso

The French Côte d’Azur is a fashion landmark for the summer New York 2015 season. But in a concise and colourful show, Tory Burch took a different perspective on the South of France: Vallauris and the arty colony of Pablo Picasso at the time he was there with Françoise Gilot when his patterned ceramics were born.

But Tory is too smart a designer to take a theme and allow it to smother her own spirit. Instead, she translated the idea of an artwork knitted by hand into clothes with rustic details.

“Home spun,” Tory said after the show to explain the woven textures of slim jacquard skirts, raffia tweeds, and fringed crochet tops.

The surface interest – artisanal but not at all in a 1970s hippie way – was a fine fit with the crisp and tidy Tory silhouettes.

Deep in the designer’s fashion soul, she seemed to be focusing on a fresh, white cotton shirt, building everything around that icon in a precise or more fanciful way. With the shirt  – long or short-sleeved – and the crisper clothes, were white sneakers and flat silvered sandals. More silver decoration might illuminate a mid-calf skirt or buttoned-up long dress.

When colour came, it was rich: red and ocean blue; or checks of orange squares on a blue sky background, all suggesting the Picasso ceramics.

The easiness of the clothes and the light wood catwalk made the show seem fresh as Southern France back in the day.