This season, Chromat’s typical range of swimwear was accentuated with inflatable vests, coats, sleeves, and more in striking hues. There was a voluminous cropped tube top, strapless gown, and even a fascinator-like headpiece in the mix for fall '17. These weren’t frivolous, purely-for-the-aesthetics accessories — the pieces are meant to represent the idea of surviving and staying afloat in a tumultuous political environment. “I was designing and coming up with the concept around the election, and it was hard to avoid being influenced by all the craziness happening,” McCharen explained of how the collection's "Buoyancy" theme emerged. “Our friends, families, and communities are being targeted and banned — I felt like everyone was in survival mode, just fighting to survive.” To that end, life jackets and inflatable rafts were an inspiration: “We wanted to make clothes to help wearer feel lifted and elevated, like they could survive in rough, open waters.” It’s the first time Chromat has dabbled with inflatable garments, working with Utah-based outdoor brand Klymit , which makes ultra-lightweight, cage-like camping pads, utilizing body-scanning technology to incorporate inflatable padding where weight is carried. (McCharen emailed the company “out of the blue” about pairing up.) “It’s been a cool collaboration between the fashion world and the outdoor survival world,” McCharen explained. Besides the survivalist symbolism of rafts and life jackets, the design process of working with inflatables has significance, too: inflatable sleeves are “so tight, they’re like blood pressure monitors , which parallels what everyone’s feeling politically, and how [today's politics] can cause high blood pressure,” she said.