Donna Karan named her Fall collection Pearls of Wisdom and recruited Erickson Beamon to design the pearl necklaces that accompanied all the looks and informed the show's all-neutral palette. Karan herself is more of an African-bead kind of woman, and for many years she relied on the bold, sculptural jewelry of Robert Lee Morris for her runway. This show was a somewhat curious departure from all that. In addition to the jewelry, the models wore Grace Kelly topknots; some sported elbow-length gloves finished in deep swatches of fur, and others carried ladylike top-handle frame bags. As for the clothes, with the exception of two pairs of high-waisted draped jersey pants, she showed dresses, skirtsuits, and coats, along with a few filmy blouses with draped necklines that sometimes doubled as head scarves. Every look, without exception, had a nipped waist.
Karan launched a lower-priced lifestyle line on her pre-fall runway in December, so perhaps this was an effort to distinguish her signature collection from that, to dress it up. Or maybe she just felt like a change. The thing is, the icy blond Hitchcock heroine is well-worn territory, even if the designer threw in some eighties power shoulders for a twist. Piece by piece, there were some great outfits—a fitted sheath with a portrait neckline, a mohair skirtsuit with a hint of sparkle, a couple of bold fur wrap coats—but this didn't have the spark of her more forward-thinking collections.
(style.com)
Lady Luxe: Donna Karan RTW Fall 2011
Labels:
Designer collections
