Ambush Spring 2019

Mimosa Spencer

Updated Wed, June 20, 2018 at 1:53 PM UTC

Yoon Ahn took Ambush to the beach for spring, considering waves and forms, but also its meditative reach.

“On the surface level, it’s beachwear, something easy,” she noted, surveying models dressed in knitted crop tops, roomy trousers and wetsuits.

But this is a label that established itself by bending familiar references to give them new scope, and here was beachwear suitable for the streets. Oversize cotton and linen shirts and trousers, with thin, ivory cords dangling from waists, contrasted with body hugging wetsuits. Working with neoprene for the first time, the designer said she enjoyed pairing the wetsuits with knits and leaving them off the shoulders, arms hanging down the sides.

Jewelry, which has ebbed slightly as the label’s clothing offer expands, remained prominent, thanks to the introduction of pearls, fat and round, sometimes in large drops. Strands were knotted on wrists, with dangling gold drops at the tips, adding dimension to the feminine touch in the coed lineup. The traditional Hawaiian lei was recast in metal and charms included inflatable animals, also in metal.

Standouts included light puffer coats that stretched down like skirts with double layered front panels, in plum or safety yellow—bring your sleeping bag to the beach, was her message, which boomeranged back with a commercially-viable underlying message, also relayed by an abundance of visible logos: “To the streets!”

Held in the Atelier Brancusi underneath the hulking Pompidou Center, the noise of crashing waves gave the Italian sculptor’s statues a tribal feel. Yoon recalled her recent visit to Hawaii, the Big Island. “That tiny island in the middle of the Pacific has volcanoes—on top of the mountain is enough snow to snowboard—if you go down to the beaches it has some of the world’s best beaches, if you talk about the energy—I don’t know if you believe in energy and the nature of it—but it’s quite powerful,” she said.

Launch Gallery: Ambush Men's Spring 2019

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Ambush Spring 2019

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