Michael Kors is a native New Yorker with serious prairie envy. Time and again, the designer seeks inspiration in America's open spaces. For spring, he set his sights on the Southwest and designed a collection that was half Texas, half Taos, but not without an urban edge. After all, his big-city girls, like Catherine Zeta-Jones, who, along with husband Michael Douglas, unleashed a paparazzi melee at the show, want to look chic no matter what their destination may be.
To that end, he offered up warm-weather staples with a rich seventies bent, like safari shirts, gauchos, and scarf dresses. There were ecrus, olives, browns, crisp blacks and whites, and painted desert accents of orange and red. Kors can't resist matching a bikini top with a full skirt; when the bottoms were on display, they were of the high-waist retro variety. (Gratefully, those eyelet numbers were lined.)
It wasn't all fun in the sun. Take away the hat tied around her neck, and Lisa Cant's black wool serge bolero and cropped pants go from Santa Fe to Manhattan's Upper East Side. Of course, his eveningwear—this season in tiers of chantilly lace and point d'esprit—is always gala ready, regardless of the time zone or backdrop.
Now back to the desert. Some members of the audience questioned Kors' use of camouflage. Was it a political statement, a message of support for our troops, or neither? One thing's for certain: His hand-painted camo-backed mink balmacaan is likely to inspire a waiting list a country mile long.
