The Souv Spring 2023 Collection – WWD

Emerging resortwear label The Souv will debut its first ready-to-wear collection on September 12 for the spring 2023 season. Founded by longtime fashion editor Mayte Allende, formerly of WWD and W Magazine, and designer Kevin Nguyen, who cut his teeth at Thakoon, Carolina Herrera and Madewell, the brand proposes a lived-in meets luxe take to resort-spirited loungewear.

“We found a void in the resortwear category,” Allende said, adding that she and Nguyen met while consulting for an established New York City brand, the name of which she declined to reveal. “We were both consulting and went to Paris — picking fabrics and prints, dreaming — but everything we liked was a no. There was always another agenda.”

Prior to the pandemic, Allende and Nguyen envisioned their own line that fused a fashionable, resort state of mind with the practicality of travelwear and the ease of loungewear — something a little more masculine, a smidge older, cooler and less precious than what currently existed in the market. The Souv, which the duo initially started two years ago, became an answer to what they saw as a void in the resort category and a result of shared passions — of vintage garments, travel, culture and history.

“The Souv is inspired by far-flung Eastern cultures, vintage bazaars and artisanal traditions,” they said, adding that the brand name plays off of the idea of traveling and collecting special “souvenirs” along the way.

“Kevin would bring back treasures he would find during his travels, which I always wanted,” Allende said, adding the brand takes cues from her editorial eye and Puerto Rican roots, as well as inspiration from Nguyen’s Vietnamese heritage and “worldly vision,” as an avid traveler, photographer and collector of textiles.

As companies started to reopen post-pandemic, the duo slowly developed their first self-funded collection and partnered with a small, family-owned factory in India to produce it.

“The premise of this collection started from two vintage souvenir scarves that I found traveling through the South of France,” Nguyen said. “The worn-in texture and hand-feel, the soft drape, the bold and vibrant colors of the scarves became the starting inspiration for our fabric, prints and silhouettes. Other than two outerwear pieces, the collection is created entirely from this fabric based on the scarf. I started out with draping and tying these two scarves to create different knots and tie detailing, which is now an integral detail for the brand. All of our knotted pieces started from these two scarves draped in different iterations and forms, and these styles are designed around these scarf drapes.”

The spring look book is comprised of 20 styles with knotted sleeves, tie front details, open backs and handkerchief hems, all of which exude a lived-in feeling through the collection’s viscose linen fabrication, which was chosen not only for its breathable quality, drape and size fluidity but also to keep the line minimal and easily packable.

Priced between $125 and $695, spring focuses on two key shapes that shy away from construction and incorporate elastic details and  generous proportions — the caftan and modern interpretations of the Áo dài, which were said to “fuse Nguyen’s heritage with a bit of Latin flair.” For instance, the Áo dài-inspired shirt dress and blouse highlight the style’s traditional waist-high slits, wide-legged pants and mandarin collar, modernized in bright floral garden and palm tree prints.

“I have trunks full of vintage Áo dài’s that belonged to my grandmother, and vintage Áo dài’s that I’ve collected from my travels through Vietnam,” Nguyen said. “The collection and individual pieces are designed with the traditional Áo dài in mind — from construction, ease, simplicity and comfort. The collection features more overt detailing to elements of the Áo dài sprinkled from style to style.”

The collection’s colors and prints were inspired by photographs from Nguyen’s travels. For instance, a one-shoulder knot dress in fuchsia, inspired by the pink-hued buildings in Jaipur; a palm tree print from the beaches of Da Nang, Vietnam; myriad allover florals of the gardens in Hanoi, Vietnam, and washed brights from the botanical gardens of Costa Rica. To reimagine Nguyen’s photographs, the duo partnered with an Italian print house that is also said to work with Valentino, Prada and La DoubleJ.

“As a lifelong editor, you truly get to know the market and every single brand like the back of your hand — yet I always yearned to launch something from conception,” Allende said. Learning from her prior experience as creative director of the former label Bande Noir, she’s eager to have “much more control since it’s just the two of us and we truly share a vision.”

To help with their shared slow and steady approach, Allende enlisted Joann Pucciarelli, a sales strategy veteran from the likes of Theory, Diane von Furstenburg and Rhode Resort, to debut The Souv’s spring collection to the wholesale market, press and public.

“Over the past 10 years, I’ve been working with designers, and although I’ve seen a ton of brands and products when she came to me, I felt the product, looked at it and thought, ‘Wow, this is different.’ The fabric and prints are amazing, and it’s easy to wear. It truly doesn’t matter [the] body type because it’s flowy; it enables everyone to wear it, which I really appreciated about the collection,” Pucciarelli said.

“What we’re doing here is taking a slow approach, which I see as very important, especially at the time we’re in — to look at these boutiques and see where The Souv fits in,” she said. Specialty boutiques and stores in the U.S. — especially in markets such as Texas, New York, South Carolina, California, Tennessee and more — are likely to be a focus during the brand’s market week, which spans from Sept. 12 to 24 and will take place within a collective space within a new, emerging brand showroom, Allende added.

“We all agree that we want to work with great boutiques and really service and support the stores that take their chance on us. I know that the small businesses — like us — who succeed have a very personal approach, they work on getting to know their customer, they get on the road, they spend time and money finding and building their community and they always, always put the bottom line first,” Allende and Nguyen added.