Resort 2011

Yesterday I stopped by Catherine Malandrino's showroom in the Garment District to check out her Holiday/Resort 2010/11 collections for "Catherine Malandrino," which is at a contemporary price point, as well as "Malandrino," her designer price point line. It was fitting that Mary J. Blige's "Family Affair" was blasting in the showroom, as the designer and the R&B star have become besties. Malandrino showed her latest "Malandrino" Resort collection on the runway at MoMA this past June to benefit Mary J's FFAWN charity--that stands for Foundation for the Achievement of Women Now--and the duo teamed up to design a capsule collection of t-shirts together this past winter to raise funds for FFAWN.

Last week I stopped by Julie Haus's showroom in the Garment District to check out her resort collection. While the line boasts the sweet feminine separates we've come to expect from Haus - breezy silk tops with zipper detailing and adorable pleat-front shorts - this collection's got a bit of edge. Prints are bold, graphic and even psychadellic. Dresses are slouchy and painstakingly draped and pleated. Blazers are embellished with grommets and sprockets.

Alber gets in on the fun during the Lanvin Resort 2011 photo shoot...from the nose up, at least.

The proliferation of full-on resort season runway shows makes me a little uneasy, mostly because it feels like most brands don't need to put on such an elaborate production to sell clothes. (Which by the way, is the main reason for pre-fall and resort collections. They make up a majority of most labels' sales.) Yet there are always a few who lend themselves so well to Resort that it makes sense to do it up. Jason Wu is one of those designers. To me, Wu is this generation's Oscar de la Renta, which means that no matter what season he's in, the pieces are both wearable and in one way or another, extravagant. So each collection deserves similar treatment.

Dior presented their Resort 2011 collection yesterday in Shanghai, and while the clothes are lovely, we can't help but think they feel a little stale.