art and sol.

Finally! Exciting new resort collections, courtesy of designers

Donna Karan, Miuccia Prada, Zac Posen, and Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton. Karan is always a bubbling vat of ideas, full of complex structure and details that only a woman designer conceives by addressing the ideas of versatility and pragmatic luxury in the context of her own lifestyle. If Donna Karan feels the need for a beautifully draped white jersey dress, it is because she wants the same thing for herself (but in black, the dominant color in her wardrobe). Sometimes she unleashes a sharp punch with a gorgeous red satin trench with fuller sleeves, as she did in this collection. Drape, construct, destroy, reinvent-she has every design skill for an aesthetic that she called "less casual, more polished this season.

"I found women wanted something that looked less resort casual, so I worked my way through simple classic shapes, structure that is sculpted but easy, and clothes that convey strength and confidence," continued Karan.

She took anthracite denim to a new level in tops with ruffled insets on the shoulders or full skirts with elasticized waists and superb raffia embroidery. The fibery material is having its big moment at Karan. There's a red raffia full skirt and the best: a black skirt entirely embroidered in a sublime Dutch woodcut or Indonesian batik design in white raffia, worn with a simple black jersey T-shirt. She makes a black tuxedo suit feminine with a raised shoulder in twisted fabric mounted on the outside of the stretch jacket. Sounds clunky? It has the sleek perfection of modernity. Suddenly a dinner or wedding at a warm-climate resort demands a long dress, and she offers the perfect absinthe column with deft draping across the cleavage. A pristine white dress instantly makes a beach bride at sunset sophisticated yet very appropriate.

Karan is a bit of a Wonder Woman (without the kitschy costume)-while organizing her first ten-day Urban Zen forum on wellness, fitness, and spiritual enlightenment, which had speakers like Deepak Chopra, Diane von Furstenberg, Tony Robbins, and yoga and Pilates experts, this designer still managed to burn the midnight-blue flame to come up with a 44-look collection of American originality and style, as elegant as a gleaming David Smith steel sculpture against a backdrop of blue sky, white clouds, and green lawn. These are clothes that will stand the test of the seasons and become fave-rave vintage Donna Karans in, say, 2020.

rock steady

"I want to give the women the possibility of adventure and confidence," said Zac Posen, who, with very little fanfare, threw a giant curveball with a stunning presentation of polish and punch. He always wants to strike up the band, or "send it up another octave, the way music does," he notes. But in this resort collection, his fifth, he demonstrated true control of craft, a clear focus on his customer, and a refined brilliant-mineral palette as well as a kind of practical glamour quotient.