Carolina Herrera – Pre Spring/Summer 2016 Ready-To-Wear
Color, prints, a well-placed flourish. All of the Carolina Herrera signatures were present in her typically lovely new Resort collection. Feathers replaced the waves and ripples of her Fall show as the season’s dominant motif. They shared the scene with florals and turned up in all sorts of ways: as a delicate painted print on a long chiffon dress, as an appliqué on a tea-length skirt, or splashed boldly across the skirt of a ball gown. Only real feathers were missing from the story; Herrera tended to prefer sequins, beads, and the occasional laser-cut plastic embroidery to authentic plumes here. But most of all, she focused on print, which kept the overall feeling light.
The Herrera silhouettes are as tried-and-true as the details. She shrugged off a flattering off-the-shoulder fishtail dress as commercial. “We do them in every color for sales,” she said. What did get her excited were the more adventurous shapes: A cropped organza T-shirt looked modern and fresh with that tea-length skirt, and the culottes she cut in jacquard patterns tapped into the current trends. The designer included some fur separates because the clothes deliver in late fall, and more and more, she thinks, women are shopping with a buy now/wear now mentality. A coral-colored curly lamb skirtsuit, she said, “is the perfect outfit for November.” Or a rainy day in early June.