Iro Spring 2018 Ready-To-Wear....Fashionweekly...On Fow24news.com

Iro is in a buoyant mood for good reason: The decade-old brand was recently acquired by the Chinese fashion heavyweight Fosun. For Spring, that optimism trickled right down to the racks....
“We really wanted lightness in the materials and the volumes,” explains Iro co founder Laurent Bitton, who defined the season’s mood as “ultra-airy ’70s–meets–’60s rock: grunge, mais chic.”

Concretely, that translated into ample, floaty tops, often in semitransparent fabrics and prints shot through with silver lamé, and high paper-bag waists cinched with a wide belt and short shorts in keeping with the brand’s leggy, rock-chick aesthetic. If there was a switch up, it was in the color story, with a fresh explosion of pinks, oranges, and prints giving the collection a more upbeat, romantic aura than in past seasons.

Of course, Iro still ticks all the boxes for its streetwear-loving base: Basics still come in what Bitton calls “non-colors,” such as pale pink or sky blue tinged with green. Key statements include midi-length dresses with lace inserts, fringe trim, and asymmetrical hems, paired with summer boots in ultrathin leathers and perhaps a jean jacket with sequined sleeves, or a silver, fully sequined baseball jacket. Or else one of the brand’s staples: a black biker jacket, this season with white stripes.

At retail, Iro keeps on rolling: Four points of sale opened in China last summer, including in Beijing’s SKP mall. The next six weeks will see new stores in Lisbon, Aix-en-Provence, and Geneva. Next up: Milan. “There’s a whole new movement in affordable luxury ready-to-wear,” notes Bitton. “Our mission is to be the first among them.” To that end, the brand is polishing up its new e-commerce website, launching imminently.