Over the past few months, the cultural hype of director Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers” pushed tennis core to the forefront of summer trends. But the Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor-led movie isn’t the only one of the director’s films that’s influencing fashion.
For the resort season, Safiyaa designer Daniela Karnuts was inspired by Guadagnino’s 2014 romantic piece, “The One I Love,” featuring Tilda Swinton.
“There’s a mixture of classic, Italian heritage shapes but with a very modern take on the textiles with hardware elements,” she said of the resort collection, which also played heavily into modernized ‘60s silhouettes.
From 2021 to 2023, the founder and designer said her business has grown 179 percent. A new 4,500-square-foot London headquarters — complete with rooms for by-appointment clients, on-site alterations and the brand’s signature 3D body-scanning technology, and back-end vertical production — and a smaller, by-appointment Upper East Side location in New York were results of this growth.
The collection also reflected her increase of customers of all ages and sizes, with more daytime wardrobing, like double-tiered black-on-black jackets; plush cardigans and a stellar wide-leg pleated cream pant with matching tunic. Playful-meets-edgy accents added youthful appeal across day and occasion wear, like sportif polyurethane, rubbery transparent coats and skirts worn atop traditional tweed and plaid tailoring with nods to the ‘60s in the touches of patent and hardware, and vegan leather-detailed Mod minidresses.
Even Karnuts’ sophisticated eveningwear had a moodier edge that nicely rounded out the modern lineup, with duchess satin evening fare wrapped in studded belts, or dresses from mini to floor-length decorated with opulent silver and paillette embellishments.
