DVF: New Romantics

Diane von Furstenberg brought out her inner Coachella – meaning that she joined in spirit the California music and arts festival for the hippie de luxe to let their hair down. The DVF-unravelled curls even had flowers in the hair, to match the tiny floral patterns that ran in rivulets over chiffon tops and silken trousers.

The designer called the collection Fortuna – that Lady Luck, a goddess of good fortune, much illustrated as a figure with gauzy wings and tumbling curls in the Victorian era. I saw the inspiration more as Liberty patterns and Saint Laurent in the 1970s.

This is all vintage Furstenberg territory and the upmarket hippie trail is a well-worn path. Yet there was charm to this golden girl walking a floor smothered in rugs bleached as if by the desert sun. Perhaps it was the prevalence of pink, occasionally paired, Hare Krishna style, with golden yellow, that brought some sunshine into this summer 2016 collection.

DVF may have absorbed fashion's wind of change blown in by the intellectual romanticism of Alessandro Michele at Gucci or by the downtown LA kids who have inspired Hedi Slimane, the current designer at her beloved Saint Laurent.

Different generations have different viewpoints and a dishevelled, youthful prettiness is not really a DVF thing. But while I was inclined to jeer at this midsummer idyll, I was soon captivated by its charm: the silken softness, golden butterflies fluttering across wispy long dresses. Only the swinging fringe on suede bags looked too familiar.

DVF has a way of updating her look without travelling too far from the tree. That would be an orchard cherry smothered in blossom. And pink, of course.