MILAN--Young designers often find it difficult to balance two separate collections. Unlike the Karl Lagerfelds of the world, these emerging talents--Marios Schwab, Richard Nicoll, Jason Wu come to mind--don't typically have massive teams to help them complete their workload. Sometimes, their talent allows them to overcome the challenge. Sometimes, it doesn't. For Christopher Kane, who designs both his namesake collection and Versace's Versus, this hasn't been a problem.

• By Lauren Sherman
  Feb 28, 2011

The fashion world--and everyone with two eyes--has already seen that Angela Missoni is an expert at reinterpreting the brand's classic striped patterns with stylish--and commercial--results. But for fall 2012, the designer seemed intent on proving that her talents can be applied to more than just space-dyed knits. Fall 2012's palette was more subdued than past collections: There were browns, camels, greys, and while there were also hints of purple, blue and green mixed into the collection, they were subtle and toned down. The brand's signature knit patterns were still there, but they weren't necessarily the focus. Many of them were styled wrapped at the chest, and belted, and in many cases they were embellished with fur trim or panels of leather--one of our favorite looks was a scarf/shrug wrapped at the chest, and with a fluffy fur collar.

• By Hayley Phelan
  Feb 27, 2012

While everyone has been busy drooling over Marni for H&M's quirky prints, designer Marni Consuelo Castiglioni had a more streamlined and graphic vibe in mind for her Fall 2012 collection. The first look to come out--a bright red cape coat, paired with pale blue trousers and a blouse with a black collar--set the tone for the sharp-lined and boldly colorful show. Next came a series of dresses and coats, which followed the same aesthetic: Dresses were colorblocked and graphic, and the outerwear was belted at the waist and neck, and all were adorned with ample square pockets. One of our favorite looks was a skirt and shirt combo, which had a modern, geometric print in an intrinsically Marni palette of blush, black and brown.

• By Hayley Phelan
  Feb 27, 2012

MILAN--It was clear Versus was in a playful mood before the presentation started. The set was a playground complete with a swing set, a slide, and one of those spinny chair things. Despite the fact that the models never actually slid down the slide (much to my dismay), Christopher Kane's collection for Versus made good on that promise of playground fun. The first looks out were bright tartans that seemed to reflect on Kane's Scottish heritage, though they were all prints drawn from the Versus archives. Then he infused the tartans with tight neon floral prints that crossed over the bust on knee-length, form fitting, ruched dresses and inserted them into the pleats of kilts. Gradually the prints gave way to bold rainbow bright color blocked dresses. That's my take. Here's Kane's: "For this Versus SS11 collection I played with combining floral, tartan stripe prints from the Versus archive, to achieve twisted and drape mesh dresses. The colour palette is very bright and optimistic (yellow, green, purple, orange, red and blue). I have worked printed mesh into longer, leaner dresses, and knitwear for a more casual sporty/grungy approach. The core of the collection is multi drape stretch mesh dresses using layers of printed mesh. Short comes in multicoloured pop dresses. Shoes and bags feature print and brogue details." Click through for more looks.

• By Leah Chernikoff
  Sep 27, 2010