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Lavishly Layered at Missoni

If any label seems ready to ride out the luxury recession it may well be family-owned Missoni, whose back to the nest luxury show staged Thursday, Feb. 26, in Milan seemed the right aesthetic response to the current economic blues.

What better way to ride out the economic downturn than some lavish layering, which was the key to this fall 2009 women's ready-to-wear collection. Deconstruction has rarely looked so authoritative as in this show, where the typical look was composed of ribbed leggings, mini skirt or shorts over slip dress, waistcoat and then lengthy cardigan. It sounds complicated and in a novice's hands could be disaster, but this show so sensitively styled that pretty much every look worked.

We also got a big dose of color and fabric co-ordination, from the matching blush hued leggings and mini platforms, to the comparably tinted gray shorts and hooded scarves. Overall, the color palette was very easy on the eye - stone gray, faded corn, peach, silver and cerulean blue.

"Put together," was Angela Missoni's explanation of this fine fashion moment. These clothes would work just fine when out for a market browse or art gallery stroll.

And being Missoni the other star of this coherently thought out collection was the remarkably fresh knits - from loose-weave mohair mini dresses in flaming lame to long cardigans in spider web cream. A Napoleonic, golden finale added to the sense of achievement, in a show which showed this family playing to its strengths - elegantly upbeat knits with a new nesting twist.

* Missoni: Cukor Classics in Milan * Missoni's Hawaiian Honeymoon		* A Very Betsey Birthday Bash * Martha Davis: Industrial Design Meets Shoes