DKNY always has ‘city girl’ style nailed and for Autumn/Winter it’s all about slick geometric tailoring, contrasting textures, slouchy layering and cute gamine dresses.
DKNY often has an unmistakable NYC look, but the urban chic AW11 collection references style from all the major fashion cities – the cool Parisian bobo look (think Carven and Sandro), sixties London Mods and the fine tailoring and detailing seen in Milan. However, everything has that polished New York finish that we’ve come to expect from Donna Karan.
Black, cream, grey and vermillion red are the key colours, along with subtle navy and camel pieces, but some some of SS11 fluoros have crept through with a bit of colour clashing in pink, coral and orange.
There is some luxurious outwear worth investing in – fine wool three-quarter length coats and capes, a chic grey blazer with ribbed lapel details and a leather and bouclé wool biker jacket.
Mod girls will be thrilled at the selection of sheer black silk-chiffon or lace shift dresses with white Peter Pan collars. I spotted at least three variations of this dress, plus shirt and skirt combos on the catwalk.
One of my favourite pieces was this silk maxi dress with sunray pleats and sections of coral-pink, tangerine, black and nude. The DKNY girl would layer it up for the colder season with a sheer-knit polo top and the most gorgeous black suede chunky heel ankle boots with silver leather toe caps.
The DKNY Autumn/Winter 2011 collection will be available online at Selfridges and my-wardrobe.
