DONNA KARAN is as New York as the Empire State Building - she's literally built a career on the back of the city - so it's fitting that the front page of her show notes for the DKNY show, shown on the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, made mention of the date. "There truly is no place anywhere like our beloved city, New York. Our inspiration," it read. Many others seemed to be a bit distracted by what the day meant.
The clothes didn't seem influenced just by the city, though. America, as a whole, seemed to be haunting the designer's psyche. She is, after all, incredibly involved in politics and the environment - in addition to style - and this has been a decade filled with growing pains. "West coast ease meets east coast edge," said the show notes of the collection. There were versatile, creamy white shirt dresses with asymmetrical hems, cut long and diaphanous at the back to open the show. Certainly that floating, effervescence was the California ease -bohemian and lissom. Over it, there were crisply tailored blazers matched with shorts, perhaps that metropolitan edge she was referring to. Her denim ensembles were handsomely crafted, and nothing says America more than jeans.
Though not entirely subtle, Ms. Karan took a red, white and blue floral pattern and skewed it with painterly brio to create outfits drenched in youthful esprit. In her hands it certainly had an appealing, cheerful energy. She looked to artists who represented the landscape for other inspirations - most notably Jackson Pollock, in her paint-speckled designs which leaned a tad moodier than the vivid pastorals. A pragmatist at heart, Karan emphasised a year-round wardrobe that defied seasons or locations, and could easily be layered with other pieces from her own collection or things already hanging in the closet. It was here that she found her most winning successes.
The sky was darkening when the show let out, and it was a bit strange to zip from show to show on a day reserved for remembering a tragedy, but if Donna Karan - a true daughter of New York - imparts anything through both her life and the work shown today, it was that optimism and versatility are powerful agents of positive change.
SEE THE DKNY SHOW ARCHIVE