MILAN–Max Mara pared down to their very essence for Spring/Summer 2011. The collection was sleek, clean, and sought to embody something they called “new purism.” The first looks out were minimalist to the extreme: A camel trench, a mod beige coat with a sharp collar, a putty-colored blazer over a pencil skirt, and a white duster coat (modeled by Karolina Kurkova).

After a neutral-colored start, Max Mara punched up the color, pairing skin tight open-backed body suits in lemon yellow, reflector-bright orange, and magenta with matching tailored shorts or exaggerated palazzo pants with slits up the side. Striped dresses and blazers infused the collection with a nautical vibe.

Max Mara described their collection as “athletic chic” in their line sheets. And it would suit the wearer to be an athlete (or at least avoid a carbohydrate-heavy meal) before stepping into one of these awesome color blocked long-sleeved body suits because every little curve will show.

**All photos from Style.com
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MILAN–Raf Simons really knocked it out of the park with his Spring 2011 collection for Jil Sander.

Proenza Schouler, Christopher Kane, and, just a few days ago, Miuccia Prada presented collections with neon color palettes. Now add Simons for Jil Sander to that list of designers who favor DayGlo over white and seafoam green for Spring. Simons’ shocking fluorescent color palette–like a box of exploded highlighters–was so bright his models wore opaque silver sunglasses as if to protect their eyes.

With colors so bright, silhouettes were more in line with Jil Sanders’ minimalist tradition, yet they were also voluminous and new. The line sheet made reference to “the language of couture–form, proportion, length and volume” as the inspiration for this new silhouette. The first looks out were taffeta ball gown skirts in neon paired with white short sleeved tees. The skirts then became more fitted, and took on peplum tops, which were seen over pants as well. Trousers were alternately tailored with a sharp seam down the front, or wide-legged to the extreme, with slits up the side of the legs. Light hooded parkas with draw string waists lent the collection a sporty feel. And dramatic column dresses described as “derived from tank tops…super-sized, elongated” made a statement in broad stripes.

To enhance the drama, the show was set to Bernard Herrmann’s score from Psycho. But just before the shower-stabbing screech of violins, Busta Rhymes’ “Gimme Some More” was mixed in (the song samples Herrmann’s soundtrack) and all was well.

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MILAN–Bottega Veneta’s Spring 2011 girl is a city girl. Models walked to the sounds of traffic–beeping horns, screeching breaks, and the whirring of rushing cars–and their hair was wet and a bit wavy, not because it was pouring outside, but, I’d like to imagine, because they’d just hopped out of the shower in a rush on their way out the door.

Tomas Maier understands that city girls need to be comfortable amidst the hustle and bustle. “We began designing this collection by thinking about the idea of ease,” Maier said in a release. To that end he sent down a collection of comfortable dresses and separates in the stand-by colors of any urban dweller: black, white, and variations in between (described by the line sheet as “cream, hay, oak, titanium and blue-black”). Models were shod in, gasp, flat sandals. But the collection had attitude too, as any girl strutting the sidewalks should. Little black dresses had mesh inserts, a sleeveless jacket was done in black crocodile, and floor lengths t-shirt dresses with deep pockets were slouchy sexy. So when more voluminous pieces in a diamond print or dotted with feathers came into the mix, they looked out of place among the ultra cool basics.

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