New York Fashion Week Day Five

“Sexy elements of sport!” announced Narciso Rodriguez backstage after a striking collection that celebrated a streamlined modernity with a subtle twist.

The designer has always been a minimalist, following body curves and slicing away fabric at geometric angles. But this show had loosened up without softening the basic message.

That was summed up by little white dresses, loose and wavy in the skirt to take a generous stride, and with similar wavy lines, but in iridescent sparkle across the chest.

The concept of bending the bleak and chic brought dresses with a black bodice low-cut at the breast or black inserts swooping across the body above the easy cotton skirts.

The idea of breaking up straight lines might focus on the back with a sporty harness criss-crossing the vertebrae, or the eye line might be interrupted by an unexpected mix of colours: coffee, pink, rust. The palette throughout was subtle, bringing gum pink or lavender to set against the starker black and white.

Many designers have paid lip service to “fashion geometry”, but here is a designer who is a master mathematician yet makes it seem so simple. It is as though he takes a compass and set square to the body, linking shapes together.

It all added up to a stand-out collection, true to Narciso’s modernist spirit and a blessing for women who are looking for streamlined clothes that still flatter the form.