Is Donna Karan foreseeing inclement conditions? Her DKNY collection for Spring was heavy on the bad-weather tech. There were windbreakers and raincoats aplenty, waxed and resin-coated numbers to keep you dry, even blazers with drawstring details and zippered pockets. But dreary this wasn't. The designer dubbed the collection Spring Clean and took inspiration from the streamlined looks of the sixties. (That über-sixties piece, the Harrington jacket, appeared in reversible form.)
Karan is an agitator for the buy-now, wear-now ethos routinely ignored by the fashion world, and her first Spring deliveries—which will hit stores in the dead of winter—come in sober, dark blues and blacks, styled buttoned up tight against the cold. Maybe that made the subsequent tiptoe into Spring all the more refreshing: Washed leather jackets, macs, and cotton suiting (in three cuts of varying slimness) arrived in an appealing palette of slates, ice blues, khakis, and tans. And lest the point get lost, a few key pieces were brightened up with shots of Popsicle orange. Here comes the sun, after all.
