Roberto Cavalli’s customer is the tough-as-nails kind of girl who never leaves the house without a smudged ring of kohl around her eyes, so it was a change of pace to see the Just Cavalli design team tap into her softer side for Resort. The new lineup achieved this fresh sense of lightness by fusing bucolic florals with Japanese art motifs—all of which were, of course, mixed up with Cavalli’s signature animal prints.

There was a pajama-like ease to not only a gauzy tank dress with mesh insets and high slits with a built-in leopard slip underneath but also a colorful chiffon shirttail camisole and a matching pair of relaxed trousers. Eastern influences came in the form of origami folds along the hemline of a jacquard miniskirt and the Hokusai-esque wave patterns seen on a knit pullover and a silk blouse with cool French cuffs. The Just Cavalli team didn’t entirely suppress its maximalist tendencies here. Case in point: the exotic leopard-swan hybrid that appeared on some of the collection’s flashier evening looks. Apparently, you can’t change a leopard’s, or a bird’s, spots.
—Brittany Adams
Runway Feed

Flashy metallic sequins and vampy black lace are typically reserved for a night out on the town, but the new DKNY Resort collection translated those glam materials into everyday looks by incorporating them into sporty silhouettes. Bomber jackets, for example, came in gold leather or encrusted with allover sequins, while updated track pants done in silver-foiled French terry were backed in lightweight crepe. Styled with tailored jackets or capes and pointy heels—as they were in the lookbook—many of those elevated athletic pieces could easily transition to evening. Other standouts that achieved this high-low mix included flouncy day dresses cut from a spongy technical mesh, as well as an embellished sweatshirt shown with a black crocheted maxi skirt. All in all, a successful, modern balancing act.
—Brittany Adams
Runway Feed

Oscar de la Renta opted out of the big to-do he usually puts on for Resort, showing his new collection to small groups of journalists today in his showroom instead. “Eighty percent of people at a show go because it’s a happening, which makes your work more difficult,” he said. “This is a more humane way to see clothes.”

The intimacy of the proceedings was apropos of the offerings at hand. Close inspection was required to determine if the colorful flowers blossoming on a Prince of Wales-check skirtsuit were printed or embroidered. As it turned out, there was a bit of both. There’s never a shortage of embellishment chez Oscar, of course, but the mood this season seemed particularly buoyant, with nods to mid-century couture. The models’ lips were painted classic red, they wore net bows in their ponytails, and their pumps often matched their dresses.

A peplum bisected a slim sheath, and a navy appliquéd silk faille top, which he called a “French jacket,” flared out in an A-line above a pair of tapering trousers. Silhouettes were exaggerated for evening, too, via bubble skirts (complete with a brooch accenting the waistline in back) and Watteau backs. The collection’s most striking number was a column gown in indigo silk faille with jet beading down the front; the cut was slim, but the effect was still positively grand.
—Nicole Phelps
Runway Feed

Getting a jump on the Resort season, Diesel Black Gold‘s Andreas Melbostad was in New York this week, showing off his second collection for the brand. Studded with leather biker jackets, it’s a continuation of his confident, cool February outing, but with a somewhat gentler feel. The look is influenced by workwear—Melbostad mentioned painters, plaster workers, and even firemen, and, in keeping with those influences, coated denim with a white dust or added oversize metal toggles to jackets. Still, the results seemed subtler here. Chalk that up to several things, among them the prevalence of white and ivory (counterpointed, of course, with plenty of black), his use of silk on a couple of short, breezy dresses, and an absence of the kind of hardware that gave his earlier clothes such a tough-girl feel.

The collection’s black-and-white print was designed, Melbostad said, to resemble an “aggressive bandanna.” As graphic as the printed jeans, T-shirts, and paneled sweaters looked, they were the least persuasive, mostly because they looked somewhat familiar. A hybridized tuxedo jacket combining silk twill and denim played to the brand’s strengths, and the designer’s. Other likely hits: denim separates that combined three different washes, and a fitted, almost strict indigo utility jacket. More of a surprise was a chunky fisherman sweater that gave off an almost preppy vibe. That was something new from Melbostad. Alluding to his upcoming show in September, he promised he’ll be expanding the Black Gold vocabulary even further.
—Nicole Phelps
Runway Feed

perfect woman body

Female body shape or figure is the cumulative product of a woman’s skeletal structure and the quantity and distribution of muscle and fat on the body. As with most physical traits, there is a wide range of normality of female body shapes.

Human beings and cultures have perennially focused attention on the female body as a source of aesthetic pleasure, sexual attraction, fertility, and reproduction. There are, and have been, wide differences on what should be considered an ideal or preferred body shape, both for attractiveness and for health reasons. These have varied among cultures simultaneously.

Women’s bodies occur in a range of shapes. Female figures are typically narrower at the waist than at the bust and hips. The bust, waist, and hips are called inflection points, and the ratios of their circumferences are used to define basic body shapes

ideal body measurements

perfect female body

Being thin and beautiful doesn’t sound like cause for concern, but that ideal can lead young women to be highly dissatisfied with their bodies, something that can bring about unhealthy behaviors. Now, researchers have found that certain factors, including family support and stress-busting strategies, can act as a buffer against such pressures.

The research is based on a theoretical model suggesting certain factors can boost well-being and, in turn, lead to a healthy body image. The researchers, including Shannon Snapp of the University of Arizona, wanted to test out the model.

Snapp and her colleagues decided to focus their test on college students, a group likely to experience self-consciousness about appearance, they said.

Past research has shown between 25 percent and 40 percent of U.S. college students experience negative body image and eating problems “that often include extreme worries about body image, excessive weight management strategies, and out-of-control eating episodes,” write the study researchers this week in the journal Sex Roles.