"This is the most avant-garde collection we've done in terms of silhouette," explained Luca Orlandi before his spring show. The designer has just moved out of a brownstone atelier into stark new headquarters, and he carried the concept of minimalism into his clothes, which were mostly rendered in neat volumes and graphic white and black. Orlandi seemed to be designing for a younger, hipper customer, the kind who is apt to layer strapless dresses over tanks, which is how he presented them today. Label loyalists looking for important evening looks will be disappointed, but you can't fault the man for trying to stretch his wings. It didn't always work—his take on the omnipresent trapeze, a snug Empire married to a fuller skirt, quickly became an overly repetitive trope—but pieces like the sporty linen-and-rayon raincoat that opened the show felt fresh.
