Make no mistake: butter yellow is alive and well at Maria McManus. In fact, for this year’s resort collection, the gentle, but bright color was a welcome addition to the collection’s otherwise muted palette. The color has been quite trendy for quite some time now, but the designer wasn’t looking towards her social media feeds as a source of inspiration. Her starting point was the painter Lucian Freud, more specifically, “a lot of the neutrals, and then the hints of blonde, yellow, primrose, and blue,” found in his 1967 painting “Girl in a Fur Coat.” Glancing between the collection and the moodboard, where a miniature cutout of the painting was tacked, the colors matched in perfect harmony.

The butter yellow Pearl Opera Coat, made from McManus’s newly developed take on “silk” composed of sustainably sourced wood pulp and recycled materials, stood out as an immediate hero item. It retained the sheen of traditional silk but had a pleasant weight to it—plus, it’s washing machine-safe. True to McManus’s sustainable ethos, the jacket, like other items in the collection, was made in a “closed-loop environment,” where excess water and materials are reused every time. Again, the color appeared in a variety of lightweight knits, building a bright throughline across the racks.

Coincidentally, this year’s Costume Institute exhibition, “Costume Art,” which explored and celebrated the dressed body, became a poignant point of contrast. “I just found that whole topic to be really interesting, because I’m decidedly not creating art here,” said McManus, referencing the red carpet’s dress code, “Fashion Is Art.” The rest of the collection used neutral separates as the basis for a classic wardrobe. For a bit of softness, the same “silk” material appeared on a blouse in a pearl color finished with a contrasting organic cotton georgette. For a bit of utilitarianism, McManus returned to the brand’s signature cargo shirt made from Italian wool. The season brings a nice dash of newness, but within it, plenty of women will find wearable items that they love.