Adeam Resort 2024 Collection

Adeam’s Hanako Maeda has been designing for over 10 years. Now that she’s reached her mid-thirties, as she shared over Zoom, her point of view has evolved. Both Adeam and Maeda have grown up, as has her customer, she said. It’s through this introspection that she arrived at her resort 2024 collection.

“I feel like my last collection was very focused on a theme,” Maeda said of her punk-inspired fall 2023 lineup. “I love what I did, but when I design for a runway show I’m always focused on a specific concept.” For resort, rather than hone in on a mood, she decided to focus on “the building blocks of what the Adeam wardrobe is.” While it’s true that every designer aims to deliver “a wardrobe”—a less crass way of referring to a commercial assortment—for resort and pre-fall, Maeda seems earnest in her attempt at paring things down.

The most important part of the Adeam design philosophy, the designer explained, is the idea of convertibility. Opening the lookbook is a belted cropped jacket, which reappears later as a trench coat—the piece is modular and can be either a short jacket, a long trench, or a long vest. Modular and convertible fashion can oftentimes feel over-designed, but Maeda has the right approach in designing with her customer’s lifestyle in mind: “This is great for traveling, because it’s three looks in one, also, when you invest in a designer price point piece, you want it to feel timeless and like something you can wear in more than one occasion and past a single season.” Another example is a knit dress that breaks down into a skirt and either a long-sleeve sweater or a sleeveless top.

Elsewhere, Maeda played off this utilitarian design sensibility by adding workwear details onto denim and tailoring. A run of three dresses taps into the whimsy of Adeam while adhering to the brief of this collection; they look both interesting and easy to wear.

Spread throughout the otherwise streamlined silhouettes in this lineup you’ll spot a peplum or two. Peplums were big in the first half of the 2010s, their popularity often attributed to the explosion of business casual in the mainstream. They’ve had a slow but steady return over the last couple of seasons, and Maeda here makes a solid statement for their comeback. “I like this idea of returning to something that feels classic or a bit retro,” she said, “but it’s also a flattering proportion, and it can be feminine and romantic while being modern.” That’s something else maturity will give you: hindsight. Why not revisit the things that have made us feel our best?