As a new mother, designer Prisca Vera Franchetti admits that she began the design process for spring with a new outlook on things. “I felt very creative while I was pregnant,” she says. “I started thinking about intention, and why I do what I do.” Motherhood can get you to cut through the noise, and focus on what truly matters. Franchetti says it resulted in her really zeroing in on her customers’s needs—and allowing herself the freedom to experiment and worry less about minimums or the wholesale side of things. “Instead of trying to please everyone, we just decided to please ourselves,” she said.
Franchetti is a designer known for sexy, summery separates and trendy going-out clothes, which were on full display in her spring assortment. The color palette, filled with mossy greens and dusty blues, was inspired by a trip she recently took out to the Grand Isle in New Orleans. “The colors were very swampy,” she said. “For me, it was very exotic—a scene I’ve never seen before.” She created a flirty little summer dress in green Japanese stretch lace, complete with a built-in corset to add shape to the waist. “It’s feminine, but also sturdy,” she said. A pink floral dress featured diagonal stripes of mesh—for a dash of skin. “It’s going from the beach to the club,” she added.
While her dresses are always a standout, Franchetti also built out her wardrobe this season, creating playful separates to mix and match. A bleached denim coat, for one, can be paired with simple jeans and still read as a statement. “It was bleach-brushed, then dyed on top,” she said. She also attempted knitwear, creating a hand-stitched mohair sweater that had a metallic brushed sheen to it. It was styled over her bathing suits. These felt like elevated takes on your everyday staples, though the pink velour sweatsuit—very Juicy Couture—and bedazzled tees were perhaps not necessary additions.
Evening-ready pieces, meanwhile, included moments like a slinky long black dress with an attached cape. For her wilder customers, she crafted a tiger-print skirt with sequins all over it, or a black sequin halter top paired with a navy leather mini skirt. It’s clear that after taking a step back to reevaluate the brand’s core ethos, a sense of fun is still very much at the center, even if that fun sometimes reads kitschy or gauche. But there is a time and place for such pieces, and Prisca does them well.
