At the end of Brandon Maxwell’s show at New York Fashion Week, his models were doing something models don’t usually do on runways: They were smiling.

Maybe that’s because Maxwell had dressed them in clothes meant to project joy and fun — psychedelic patterns, shimmering fabrics, and bright colors, in casual garments that evoked a day in the park or at the beach.

“Don’t we all want to be on a beach at this point?” Maxwell said during a backstage interview after Friday night’s show. “Life has not been a beach for the last year and a half.”

In the past, he said, his designs have been a more literal reflection of his mood and experiences. “If it’s a dark time, it’s been dark clothes, and tight,” he said.

But this time, rather than focus on the bleakness of the past year, Maxwell said he wanted to “find the beauty in this moment.”

So he imbued his Spring Summer 2022 collection with a casual-chic aesthetic featuring bold prints in pinks, oranges, and greens, plaid board shorts, shiny windbreakers, jackets and trenchcoats, dresses in bright metallics, and tees emblazoned with a mushroom design. There were long dresses, too, but made casual by wide stripes or bold psychedelic prints.