The colorful palette, ranging from nail-polish pink to turquoise blue combined with the pale powder pastels add to a spring rather than autumn feel. This season, dresses are mainly sleeveless and shoulders are often bare. The jacket, once the symbol of female power in the workplace, is out. Instead pretty cashmere twin sets abound. Low-waisted trousers and skirts worn with cropped tops expose the navel to the cold and the aesthetic risk of extra tummy folds.
Fabrics are so diaphanous that strategic embroidery is sometimes the only chastening factor.
In fact, embroidery, Vivienne Tam 's signature design feature, shows up on net seperates that can be casual or dressy depending on how they are worn. Mix the same top with a floor-length velvet skirt and you're ready for a benefit dinner. She adds some Asian flavor in the form of stylized Chinese characters embroidered in silver down the front. If you want some sparkle, Tam has sleeveless sweater shells decorated with beads or sequins that also inspire countless mix and match possibilities. There's a wool sheath in white and black windowpane plaid accented with black sequins embroidered in a geometric pattern down the middle and hem of the dress.