Designer Clothes – Louis Vuitton Resort Collection

Designer Clothes – The French coquettes on Louis Vuitton‘s Fall runway have set off for the beach. They’ve traded in their kinky above-the-knee lace-up boots for swashbuckling gold sequined open-toe numbers and replaced their satin and lace with nautical-stripe bustier dresses and bikinis or crisp khaki safari jackets and wide-leg, deep-cuff trousers.

Bags, belts, bracelets, and shoes are trimmed with rope details, but that’s about as overt as the Riviera referencing gets in this enjoyably saucy collection. A black silk plissé cocktail dress with a plunging neckline edged in gold embroidery and a tuxedo jacket that turns to reveal a sexy cutout back look just as likely to turn up at louche Paris hot spot Le Baron as they are on the boardwalk in Saint-Tropez.

Designer Clothes – If the economy is getting to Miuccia Prada, her Resort collection didn’t show it. In sharp contrast to the austerity of her Fall show, this one had pretty draped-back dresses in camel color-blocked with pastels; cheeky scarf-print bikini briefs with ties at the hips, worn with neon-bright button-downs; and eye candy in the form of little duffel bags in colorful florals that matched the models’ ankle-tie sandals.

The bow was a recurring motif, appearing at the neckline and elbows of an asymmetrically draped black top, at the hem of narrow underskirts, and at the back of float-y, vaguely 1920′s-ish wallpaper-print dresses. The cumulative effect was appealingly unstudied. Call it Prada‘s antidote for trying fashion times.

Designer Clothes – From the “Love to Love You Baby” soundtrack at Zac Posen to the slinky, obi-tied jerseys at Michael Kors, there has been a discernible disco vibe to Resort 2010. Hannah MacGibbon played the flip side of the seventies at Chloé—think Annie Hall meets Laura Ashley.

There were two basic looks: high-waisted pants, blouse, and jacket, or silken dresses with either puffed shoulders or pleats. If the cross-back overalls looked jejune, the lined waterproof capes, carried over from Fall, weathered the transition nicely.