Most resort labels interpret the brief as linen and neutrals. Asta Resort read the same brief and went the other way entirely, building a range around hand beading, sequin and heavy surface texture. The Los Angeles and Sydney axis shows in the output, which sits somewhere between an Australian summer party and a West Coast rooftop. Asta resort is not trying to dress the whole holiday, only the evening of it, and that focus is why the range holds together so well.

The hand beaded pieces and the sequin pieces do different jobs. Beading, as on the Yasmin satin mini and the Arlette maxi, catches light in a scattered, irregular way that reads as craft. Sequin, as on the Ana Baia Blue, the Maya long sleeve mini and the Natalia sleeveless, is flatter and brighter and reads as party. The Delilah hand crochet cotton plunge neck mini is the only piece here that works in daylight, which makes it the most practical thing in the range and a useful counterweight if you are buying two. The Bianca mini romper is the wildcard, because a sequinned romper solves the problem of dancing in a maxi.

If you take one thing away, buy Asta for a specific night rather than a general holiday. These are not versatile pieces and pretending otherwise leads to disappointment. What they are is extremely good at one job, and the hand beading in particular holds up to close inspection in a way machine embellishment does not. The crochet mini is the exception and the one item here you will wear in more than one context. Sizing tends to be generous through the body on the maxis and closer to the skin on the minis. If you are choosing between the beaded and the sequinned pieces, beading photographs better in low light and sequin photographs better under a flash, which is a genuinely useful distinction.