On an archipelago in Vietnam in the South China Sea, the region's first international airport recently opened to service a burgeoning global tourist industry and its luxury beach resorts sprouting along the coastline. Vacationers arrive for the weekend from Russia, Italy, China and elsewhere in Vietnam to ride the world's longest 'gondola' (aerial oversea cable car) between a network of islands. The entrance to the gondola simulates ancient ruins displaced from some vague locality between early Rome or Athens. At the beach, statues of Tiki heads line the paths where crowds of Russian and English-speaking sunbathers slather SPF 70 to protect them from the sun. As the day wears on and the tourists begin to retreat, the vista of exposed skin gives way to a mélange of ordinary, daytime ensembles worn by local islanders who wade into the water fully clothed.

Surface Trend is our attempt at tracing this moment of contact. Inspired by the loud, colorful fabrics of our surroundings in both New York and Vietnam, the collection imagines a style that interprets a global undercurrent. How does the desire for a 'modern look' collide with the existing sensibility of a given locale? What is that excess that overwhelms the surface – a look that is placeless yet recognizable, foreign yet familiar?