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Maria McManus Resort 2024

Maria McManus looked to desert blooms this season to create a resort collection of her timeless staples.

The Irish designer took inspiration from art curator Diana Campbell for her resort 2024 collection, specifically her “Desert X” exhibition in the Coachella Valley.

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“She’s always looking into how people exist in quite difficult environments, so Coachella or California generally or Arizona, just too much heat, and then Bangladesh, too much water,” McManus said. “And then, of course, I started to think about it in terms of climate change and how will people exist in temperatures that are 50-plus degrees [Celsius] and are you going to want to exist in just air conditioning. Is that the way of life that everyone will want at that point?”

This inspiration also informed the practices McManus took to create the collection. As the designer has long been committed to sustainability, she utilized recycled materials, biodegradable fibers and sustainable practices like closed loop processes.

Key styles included the duvet coat, a trenchcoat-esque jacket that was designed with recycled down that came from used garments.

She updated many of her core styles, such as her cashmere sweaters designed in her popular cerulean hue, this time with cutouts on the arms to create a cape-like quality.

There was also the metallic Ecovero yarn sweaters created in the closed loop process where the majority of chemicals and water are reused in production, which is said to reduce emissions and water usage by 50 percent.

While the collection mostly stuck with McManus’ signature neutral shades, pops of color were seen among her lilac and floral pieces, which were inspired by desert flowers such as Indigo Bush and Mojave Aster.

Launch Gallery: Maria Mcmanus Resort 2024

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