ZAC POSEN RESORT 2012

ZAC POSEN RESORT 2012

COCO ROCHA (ELITE)

More, more, more is the usual marching order at Zac Posen. For Fall, he clipped his wings a bit, but you couldn't help feeling that the effort cramped his style. So for Resort, he's back to bigger-is-better exuberance, the poe-faced be damned. Luxury was the word he hammered home. Twists and lattices of taffeta crossed bodices and jacket sleeves but hewed close to the garments—"crushed couture," Posen called it. Not that every piece kept a close circumference. Posen's gowns are more wasp-waisted than ever, but several—including the blood-red showpiece Posen likened to a Charles James—explode at the hems into frothy tiers of cascading cloth.

Loyal fans—like Posen's lookbook model, Coco Rocha, and longtime pal, Josephine de la Baume, whose wedding dress he's designing for her August nuptials to Mark Ronson—will be glad to find their friend restored to his former pomp. For those who appreciate the more streamlined Posen, there are the consolations of silk faille trenches, flaring pencil skirts, and suiting newly developed in Italy, in leather-trimmed tweed.

MARCHESA RESORT 2012

MARCHESA RESORT 2012

Slim Aarons' legendary book of photographsA Place in the Sun was a starting point forMarchesa's Resort lineup. The floaty coral caftan with the matching bead embroidery at the shoulders and the thigh-scraping metallic lace dress were designed for parties by the pool and cocktails under the stars rather than the red carpet and the photographers angling for shots beside it. "We take a more sales-driven approach to this collection," explained designers Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig.

A label can't live on celebrity dressing alone. Still, we wouldn't be surprised to see a few of these numbers on the pages of a gossip magazine. Neither the showstopping allover silver beaded floor-length dress with a plunging back or a white goddess gown with a shawl of jeweled fringe made it through their first day of appointments before being requested for a shoot or an event or some other fabulous thing.