Show Report
Those wide-cut almost kimono-style sleeves underlined something slightly Oriental hovering over many of the outfits.
'Burning summer of passion' was the lurid phrase Karl Lagerfeld chose to open his latest offering for Fendi - more Mills and Boon than Alta Moda for this most esteemed Italian house - but it was something of a misnomer for anyone expecting a raunch fest. The closest we got were a few semi-unfastened gypsy blouses, and a flash of naked shoulder through slits and slats in lantern sleeves on Lagerfeld's mid-calf line dresses in capacious summer cottons.
Those sleeves were the big story, jutting proudly from the arm in leathers and starched cottons, or draping around in soft georgette. Those wide-cut almost kimono-style sleeves underlined something slightly Oriental hovering over many of the outfits: witness the high-wrapped obi-style belts and cummerbund waists, the wrapped detail skirts and judo-style jackets, and a few prints - geometric squares like shoji screens, or organic spots reminiscent of stylised ink-blots in brilliant jewel shades dotting white crepe. Then there was the colour, quickly becoming a major obsession for S/S 2011. It may have started as dribs and drabs in a largely white New York Fashion Week, but has quickly become a full rainbow. Lagerfeld splashed shades of brilliant aquamarine and viridian across flowing silk dresses, belted closely-massed dots of bright orange and cobalt into kimono-like tunics, and even wrapped his shoes in contrast bands - apple-green with tangerine, violet with sulphur yellow. A tunic and matching trousers was rendered eye-shockingly bright in brilliant scarlet leather, a wrap skirt and belted jacket with curvilinear sleeves offered a counterpart in petrol-blue calf. But, most strikingly, the colour was applied to his bags - sometimes two, three shades jostling for attention. Lagerfeld mostly laid these against wisely-muted shades of mint, palest blue and frothy cappuccino shades of cream and brown. Perfect blank canvases, if you will.
