Daily Fashion News

Alberta Ferretti applied her characteristically light touch to a Resort collection that, like many others this season, featured soft makeup tones. While the designer didn't venture out of her comfort zone, there were many romantic cocktail looks and some standout collarless coats that loyalists to the archly feminine label are sure to love. After all, don't they say that familiarity breeds fondness?

What season could be better suited to the talents of Allegra Hicks, queen of caftans, than Resort? Her prints—this season a bold tropical motif and some smaller florals—naturally lend themselves to flowy, beach-friendly separates in jersey, stretch poplin, toweling, and a crinkled gauze that especially captured the sea-and-sand mood. Still, there were no surprises here. And for all of its patterns, the collection lacked a real creative imprint. ...

Marc Jacobs sailed Louis Vuitton smoothly into Resort with a collection of mostly pared-down and shipshape looks. There were trim, belted coat-dresses, and sharp skirts cut from a painterly striped print commissioned from London-based illustrator Tanya Ling. Among the nip-waisted suits was one in a classic Jackie O. silhouette, cleverly freshened up in white leather with black satin bows and worn with teetering wedges. Adding some spice to the safe, ladylike lineup were sexy ...

Alexander McQueen showed his women's pre-spring collection on the runway alongside his Spring menswear "because they both go into the shop together," but also to mark the season's commercial importance. How reassuring to hear from the designer that 60 percent of his business comes from these gorgeous, uncompromising outfits. There have been times when McQueen seemed like the new Charles James, but here, he was all about ...

How apt that Stephen Burrows decided to take a vacation from jersey, his signature fabric, for Resort. Instead, the designer showed a collection cut entirely in wovens and lace. Despite the shift, Burrows retained his easy silhouettes, using the soft give of elastic, for example, to control volume on an animal-print dress. He also introduced tailoring in jackets, as in a pale plum, petal-sleeved one that wrapped around ...

In May, Albert Kriemler's pre-fall collection for Akris briefly quieted retail doomsayers when it netted a cool million dollars at a Bergdorf Goodman trunk show. From the looks of Resort, the cash registers are set to keep cha-ching-ing. In addition to the house's classic full trousers, there was a new scrunchy, carrot-silhouetted pant. Kriemler took a lighter than ever touch in his perennial play with transparency, seen on ...

The days when cruise collections were all about clothes for holidays and parties are long gone. The 30 looks in Giorgio Armani's latest ran a full gamut, from a reinterpretation of Armani's office-bound classic suit to a midnight blue tux. Draping was a theme: Tops were gathered to one side with a single button. The emphasis was on a long, fluid silhouette in soft, natural fabrics like linen ...

Instead of a complete change of direction for Resort, Nicolas Ghesquière evolved themes from his Fall runway. But the spotlight mostly swung away from last season's sculpted, über-feminine look—seen here in a stiff, silvery skirtsuit with matching pointy bra as underpinning. Ghesquière developed Fall's small group of highly wearable looks that paired skinny pants with draped and twisted tops. He did so through mix-and-match themes of nineties minimalism ...

The message was crystal clear as a Baccarat glass tinkling with iced Campari and blood orange on the beach at Parrot Cay: Ralph Lauren's take on Resort is unabashedly classic. He calls it "takeaway" (but, nope, it's got nothing whatsoever to do with Chinese food). It's a wardrobe that says Mustique, Palm Beach, and St. Bart's in a happy rainbow of paisleys, white cottons, sunshine yellows, and kelly ...

Jill Stuart re-created her Fall show in Tokyo during the city's March fashion week. (Stuart is big enough in Japan to be thronged for post-show autographs.) But the designer didn't take home any Far Eastern references. For Resort, she stayed well within her comfort zone of short, girlish dresses in Laura Ashley-esque florals and fresh, vaguely Victorian white cottons—just the sort of thing that makes her a hit ...