Love Clothes But Hate Fashion?

If such thing as the fashion soul mate exists, Tucker designer Gaby Basora and director Zoe Cassavetes are each other’s perfect match. Call it a sartorial SheHarmony.com. “It only took like five minutes of Gaby and I meeting to realize that we loved each other entirely,” said Cassavetes over dinner with Basora at Paris restaurant La Saturne in March. The director, who now lives in Paris with her husband, Sebastien Chenut, segued into a bemused, wined-and-dined half-rant. “I love clothes but I hate fashion. I’m sorry, I just don’t have time for the blah blah blah,” she said. “Gaby gave me all the clothes I wanted to wear without the fashion bullshit.” Basora reflected the praise right back across the wooden table. “[Zoe] looks phenomenal in the clothes, but there’s also a shared sensibility—same sense of humor, outlook on life.”

Under such mutually admiring circumstances, a collaboration was only inevitable. Their first is a polka-dot print inspired by a book with the rather direct title of Vintage Dress Fabric From the States that Cassavetes picked up at 10 Corso Como in Milan. “It’s a polka dot, but it’s not really. It’s quirkier than that,” said Basora. True enough. On a background of poppy red, the navy dots seem to dance around—the result of the tiny white squares sprinkled around them.

For her summer collection—hitting stores and sites near you at the end of this month—Basora cut the dotty fabric into her ever-flattering, nipped-waist panel dress and a sexy backless jumpsuit. There’s also a silk bikini that’s not quite ready for cannon-balling into the deep end, but is evidence of their next meeting of the fashion minds: Tucker swimwear. Not surprisingly, Cassavetes has lots to say on the subject. “The thing about our bikini is that it’s going to be completely about the ass,” she began. “I want a ruche at the ass crack to give a little…” Basora finished the sentence, “Definition.” “Yes, and you know what? It works very well,” Cassavetes continued. “Basically it’s something you can wear that’s sexy but if you’re not 20, you’re not dying in it.”

(style.com)