Alice + Olivia by Stacey Bendet Spring 2025 Collection
Alice + Olivia by Stacey Bendet created a Hotel of Imagination, a fantastical, ethereal world that highlights the brand’s Spring 2025 collection. Through a series of fantastical vignettes—each room representing a signature print or embellishment —a lace library, a fantasy floral salon, a decoupaged dinette, and a chambre de l’étoile—guests are transported into a fantasy world, a place where you can tell your own story of who you are and who you want to be, inspiring women to turn fashion imagination into reality. Hot air balloons and vintage car sets take you back to a time of promise and hope.
“My mother once told me that I dream in dresses. The collection is an ode to both imagination and what I call wearable couture. I wanted romance again, and I want women to see clothing as art,” CEO and Creative Director Stacey Bendet says. The designer tapped into the Fifties and Sixties silhouetting with little ladylike shifts, drop-waist dresses, full skirts, and crystal-embellished tunics—looks you can easily picture being worn elegantly in both past and present.
“It’s all about a nod to the past while ushering in the future. Women want clothes that are wearable and expressive. I want to make clothes that always feel unique and make a woman feel her most beautiful,” Bendet says.
The collection blends past and present with sculptural jackets and vests that feel utterly fresh. Other classic couture shapes are executed in thoroughly modern ways. Dresses with dropped-waist bodices and full skirts are done in a wrinkle-resistant moiré for the girl on the go, and new engineered vertical florals visually shape the body into an hourglass form.
Corsets are engineered in stretch knits as statement items for the season and paired with the season’s “must-have” new Olivia pant, which Bendet refers to as “the best and most flattering butt fit we have ever made!”
Another new feature of their signature full skirts and luxurious gowns is the #snapskirt, which allows for easy length adjustment from floor-sweeping to calf-grazing. A bottom ruffle hem can fully snap off to allow for a shorter length style.
The color scheme this season can best be described as “preppy primary,” with soft colors of chambray, banana yellow, and dusty pinks intertwined with pops of red and blue. The preppy undercurrent continues with bouclé lady jackets, smart knit polos, and printed menswear ties paired with their coordinating button-downs.
The dramatic, luxurious old-world feel carries through to technique with laser-cut appliqué florals. The collection brims with color, texture, and technique—spectacular embellishments are seen throughout, and thoughtful design touches imbue a singularity and specialness to each garment. Delicate lace and broderie anglaise are cut into bohemian day dresses and romantic gowns, while three-dimensional floral appliqués give the collection depth and dimension. Bendet is sentimental about always including a lace story in the collection, as both her father and grandfather were in the business of producing lace. This season, lace even played an integral part in the beauty looks, as it was woven into romantic buns.
Opulent eveningwear steals the show. A glittering column gown bedecked with hundreds of pink-colored mirrored shards truly leaves the mouth agape, as does a series of glamorously dramatic capes.
And what’s a girl to do about a fabulous bag? For the first time since 2019, alice + olivia created handbags, each tying back to a hero embroidery or embellishment in the collection. A decadent, crystal-encrusted clutch acts as a statement jewelry piece, while glittering baguettes hand-embellished with beads and paillettes are resplendent in the light. These items will be available as limited edition drops throughout the season.
The alice + olivia woman has places to be, parties to go to, flights to catch, and a world to conquer—and she’s going to look phenomenal doing it. We hope she loves her trip to Hotel Imagination.