[Images via Style.com]
Jil Sander
For Jil Sander designer Raf Simons, the idea for Spring 2011 was a maximalist minimalism, working his clean lines into the voluminous ball-gown-skirt-and-t-shirt look. Think a much more streamlined version of Sarah Jessica Parker’s SATC2 look when she meets John Corbett in the bazaar. Where Simons held back in details he pumped it up in color and texture: earthy yellow and orange, royal blue, Barbie pink, stripes, and leather.
Versus
For a designer known for celebrating a woman’s curves, Donatella Versace’s spring collection of the recently revived label seemed to send off fireworks. Mini, knee-, and calf-length dresses hugged and wrapped in all the right places, gradually progressing from assertive, primary plaids to micro florals. Versace and partner-in-crime Christopher Kane admitted the fabrics actually came from the Versace archives. Yet they added trendy elements like mesh paneling to usher it into 2011. The result guarantees that the spring Versus woman won’t look like anyone else at the party.
[Images via Style.com]
Giorgio Armani
With a house on the island of Pantelleria, halfway between Europe and North Africa, Giorgio Armani has good reason to be inspired by the midnight sky over the Sahara. His spring show was homage to the rich, deep blues of a barely-lit African sky and its scattering of stars. Crystals, sequins, and shimmer adorned impeccable jackets, skirts, dresses, and slim-fit pants. The goings-on under the Saharan sky had made an impact on the iconic designer as well. Tribal jewelry and Tuareg head wear accented the layered silhouette, and proved an intellectual extension of the inspiration: in a collection almost entirely in blue, why not incorporate the head dress of a nomadic group known as the “blue people”?
-Kaci Hamilton
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