Abandoning her almost all black, romantic and moody message for fall, Donna Karan was yet another designer who was inspired by art this season…specifically modernists like Mondrian, Pollack, Calder, Klee, and Miro (she must have spent a lot of time at the Guggenheim and Modern Museum of Art). Not only was this evident in her graphic, clean, fresh palette of predominantly white, navy, black, red, and yellow, but through her use of abstract lines, free forms, and concentric circles, randomly placed around coats and dresses, as well as a graffiti like print. She even used a metal Calder- like mobile neck piece to accessorize some of the oufits.

But they key ingredient was her reliance throughout on a loose and easy silhouette….looser skirts (mainly hovering around the knee for daytime), full, gathered or wide kimono sleeves, and smocked shapes that were cinched in with wide belts defined the collection though she did have a few pencil skirts and narrow cropped pants. One of her newest ideas is the ‘freefall back’ dress which has a wide belt running through the coat and out one side, which creates a full tent shape in back.

Standouts include the black full knee length coat piped in white with red piping outlining the large pockets and a wide band of yellow on the bottom; group of silk coats and dresses in white with abstract designs and circles in yellow, red, and black randomly placed;; the black and white graffiti-like abstract printed cotton sundress with fitted bodice and full skirt; and a duo of long red evening dresses banded with black. Just a note, she has been wearing a lot of red when going out to parties this past season, and has never looked better. I guess she figured she would pass this along to her customers.

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