Designer A-Z

Donna Karan

Autumn/Winter 2012

SHOW SCHEDULES

By Jim Shi

Meet Donna Karan, the intelligenista.

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For autumn winter 2012 Karan delved deep into her prowess for designing urban clothes that are both appealing and on the cusp; the results, shown Monday to a crowd that included Emmy Rossum, Ashley Greene and Rose McGowan, had an profound emphasis on masculine tailoring, often in bold pinstripes.

These clothes screamed of confidence and allure. Set to a colour palette of greys, red and black, the use of textures in the collection—mohair, jersey, among them—was a palette cleanser in an otherwise crowded schedule. Asymmetry ruled supreme in this collection, with half-collars, side-draping and off-kilter slits playing off that iconic shoulder (“The last part of a woman’s body to age,” Karan said). Fedora by Stephen Jones only served to up the glamour quotient.