BRIAN REYES RESORT 2011

LINDSAY WHITE (IMG MODELS)

The birth of a nephew had Brian Reyesthinking about the old world and the new, and the voyage between. So the Colombian-American designer took Ellis Island as the theme for his Resort collection—travel of a somewhat-less-than-resort kind. "It's a girl who brings her roots with her," Reyes said of his muse, and so there were pieces that married European flair with American ingenuity: An Austrian-stripe dress, inspired by the heavy brocaded textiles of the old world, had a detachable skirt.

LINDSAY WHITE (IMG MODELS)

There were times when the story line got in the way of the designs—a dress inspired by a violin, some imagined traveler's prized possession, felt fussy—but when it worked, it worked. There was a well-aged, slightly Mitteleuropa glamour to a lavender culotte suit shown with a cape.

LINDSAY WHITE (IMG MODELS)

Furs, which Reyes first introduced for Fall, had a continental charm, too (and a very New York cut: the T-shirt jacket). Then, the voyage: striped marinière dresses and a leather-accented "seaman's jacket" in double-faced silk crepe. And, at the end of the journey, the print: an image, snapped and then distorted, of oil and water. "The first thing she saw when she arrived," Reyes explained.

LINDSAY WHITE (IMG MODELS)

LINDSAY WHITE (IMG MODELS)

LINDSAY WHITE (IMG MODELS)

LINDSAY WHITE (IMG MODELS)