Donna Karan s latest collection was titled A Uniform of Dressing and described rather dubiously as a mix of war and romance. The designer s extrapolation of the military theme came down to buttons and grommets, essentially, and officer s jackets that were either long and fitted or short and double-breasted. The romance, meanwhile, had a very sexual undertone and was witnessed in the collection s winks of sheerness, gathered body-con dresses, and vertiginous skirt slits, not to mention the blouses with exaggerated sleeves that looked as though they were about to fall off. Not in a bad way—in a shrugged-on, post-coital way.
The war and the romance were both largely red herrings, though, which was welcome given that the aestheticization of war has never felt less appropriate. Karan s real theme, it turned out, was fabrication, and her exploration with textiles was what gave the collection its panache. There was a very cool, leather-like lacquered satin used, for instance, on the apron front of a slit-to-there pencil skirt, and a crinkled leather limbed with stainless steel. There was crocheted chiffon as well as crinkled chiffon with lashes of thread that produced a feral feel, one that reverberated even more forcefully through the pieces in a black eyelash jacquard. And Karan—the ultimate jersey girl—bonded the material to neoprene and used it to great effect in both fitted looks, like the long-line officer s coat, and voluminous ones, like an evening dress with a skirt fretted with peephole slits. That dress was a standout item, alongside the designer s fuzzy blanket coat in an offbeat check jacquard and her body-con jersey dresses, a signature look that doesn t get old. But perhaps her most winning design here were her cropped silk pants. Understated, sure, but those pants looked terrific—easy to wear, sophisticated, fresh. Theme not required.
