Markarian Resort 2027 finds Alexandra O’Neill in a decisively personal mood, channelling a Jackson Hole honeymoon into a collection that leans Western without ever losing the elevated eveningwear DNA the brand was built on.
O’Neill returned from her honeymoon mere hours before hosting her appointments, which goes some way to explaining the immediacy of what landed on the rails. ‘I was inspired by this Western aesthetic. I kind of went back to my roots in Colorado, but wanted to give it a bit more of an elevated touch,’ she said.
The result is a collection that threads a needle most resort lines fumble: it feels genuinely lived-in without sliding into costume territory.
What the Markarian Resort 2027 Collection Delivers
Fringe is the obvious entry point. Fun and flirty fringe mini dresses arrive ready to be paired with cowboy boots for the kind of festive party circuit O’Neill herself frequents. They read as playful rather than pastiche, which, given how crowded the Western-revival space has become, is an achievement worth clocking.
Wildflower embroidery offers a softer counterpoint, applied to simple slip dresses and skirts with a delicate hand. These are pieces for the customer who wants the mood without the statement, and they work precisely because O’Neill keeps the base garments clean enough to let the embroidery breathe.
The collection’s most quietly confident moment is a rouge taffeta skirt set pairing a ruffled halter top with a dip-waist bottom. The hue was chosen to evoke Western sunsets, specifically the way the light shifts as the sun drops below a mountain range. It is the kind of colour story that sounds contrived in a press note and looks completely right on the hanger.
A white fringed dress with a tassel belt closes the loop on the texture conversation, combining whimsy with enough structural interest to avoid reading as fancy dress. And for the customers who come to Markarian for its more traditional sensibility, O’Neill folded in Western-inflected Rococo textiles and motifs, a reminder that the brand’s decorative roots are still very much present.
The Designer Behind the Brand
O’Neill launched Markarian in 2017, according to a profile by Moda Operandi, and the label has built a reputation for the kind of considered eveningwear that photographs well but also functions in a real wardrobe. WWD has reported that she began generating wider industry interest shortly after launch, a trajectory that has continued as the brand expands its seasonal range.
What gives the Resort 2027 outing its coherence is something that also characterised her recent work. For Bridal Spring 2025, O’Neill drew from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, according to the CFDA. Before that, WWD’s review of the Resort 2025 collection noted that Cher’s iconic style served as the animating reference. The through-line is clear: O’Neill works best when her inspiration is specific and biographical rather than broadly thematic, and Jackson Hole has given her exactly that kind of anchor.
The Western turn also suits the moment commercially. Cowboy boots have been a fixture on the party circuit for two consecutive seasons, and fringe has held longer than most trend forecasters expected. O’Neill is not chasing the cycle here so much as meeting a customer who already arrived at the party in the right shoes.
The real test will be the rouge taffeta skirt set: if that hue lands with buyers the way the Jackson Hole sunsets landed with the designer, it has a strong chance of becoming the kind of piece the brand’s regulars come back for season after season.
