Summer 2005: Show Some Skin
Cutouts and knitwear highlight the sensual season

©2005 Metrofashion.com- San Franciso Style Festival This season's must-have item, the tunic beach cover-up, plays an important part in the Swati collection at the San Francisco International Style festival.

Swati is a couture design studio specializing in a bilingual view of fashion that blends the sensuous and the practical, bringing the art of the East to the West.

Indian-inspired motifs glitter across the silken fabrics of hot pink, peacock purple, and turquoise.

" Crossover looks" abound with a heavy focus on embellished sequins and beads playing across variations of the Indian sari and shararai, updated with modernized midriffs, choker necklines, and lace-up backs. Swinging skirts complete the prom-meets-Bollywood look.

Luxury designer Liliana Castellanos displays her penchant for soft Alpaca wool with exquisitely tailored coats, shawls, ponchos, and jackets.

Full-length and knee length coats in powder pink and blues, ivory and beige take off the chill while details like tone on tone embroidery, contrasting waist ties and frothy dipped fringes keep the eye moving.

When lounging is the only way to beat the summer heat, Cari Borja is what to wear. Flirty ruffles appear in unexpected places with whimsical results - along the elbow, gracing the ankle, or framing the face with studied romance.

Sleeveless hoodies are matched with flowing wide-legged pants in neutral shades or bright harlequin patterns. Wrap tops and dresses in gauzy silks and viscose slink across the skin like the patterns of a heat wave.

2002 Spring and Summer - Flouncing Around
©2002 Metrofashion.com- Wrapped and ruffled, pleated and pale, beaded and bangled, Spring and Summer 2002 fashions invite the post-9/11 world-weary woman to chill out and let loose, what the Southerners call "flouncing around." The fabrics are chiffon-centered, feminine in nature, and luxurious with layering, while the cuts, shapes, and embellishments shout "watch me swish!". Everything moves in Spring 2002, the skirts have plenty of bias themes and embellished borders and sink low on the waist to mirror recent pant trends, and the tops and dresses hang loose and have lots of texture, attachments, and whimsical artwork. In a sort of "new Aquarius," stylish folk are revisiting watery themes of flow, splash, and flounce, making Spring and Summer 2002 the most expressive new millennium summer season yet.

For starters, Romeo Gigli shows a neutral palette of two-piece sets with soft wrap components in the season colors of moss, burnt red, black and grey. Giglio's collection is alluring and mature, separating this Spring season mood from previous experimental seasons during more prosperous times. A grey wrap handkerchief camisole directly across the breasts compliments pencil-strapped suspenders and bias-cut above-the-waist slate grey skirt. The skirt adds ruffled floral cut-outs strung across two opposing biases, creating a trailing wave motion in repose. (Some images copyright Passerella.)

Gigli flirts with the lingerie look but stays with clean lines and earthy colors to create an illusion of lush covering. It's as if the very forest itself covers the female in swaths of warm sheers and layered mesh. Gigli evicts the gypsy nature of post-9/11 reflection merged with an ongoing integration of elegant detailing with premium garments.

Carolina Herrera's Spring 2002 collection continues the looseness theme while simplifying the silhouette to be long, lean, and flouncy around the cuffs. Sequin characters decorate tops and cocktail dresses, and the plunging neckline highlights the shoulders. Joining in the 70s nod, there are working pants with low waist disco shapes and satiny finish. Herrera mixes formalwear with ready-to-wear, bringing gown concepts into the mix with bias cut bottoms and white mesh overlays.

Herrera's collection extends elegance to include flouncing and prancing. The modern lady can carry a classic posture while showing off a little draped chiffon or some splashed crystals. White is critical to the carriage as Herrera interrupts the "white is the new black" theme by using body-forming tops with sensuous bordering. Always aware of the bridal influence, Carolina Herrera has managed to transform Spring 2002 ready-to-wear into something lady-like.