This collection sizzles with a retro look.

Designers banded together in support of the exposed midriff like never before this season, but this is no Britney Spears redux. Dolce & Gabbana channeled Sophia Loren, and Emilio Pucci’s Peter Dundas conjured a latter-day Brigitte Bardot. The key is to keep the belly button under wraps, exposing just a tasteful flash of skin below the bandeau.

The high slit dress can also work  into your wardrobe this spring. Pair a slit skirt with a cotton tank for an effortless summer take. The trend has been very popular among celebrities as they have been rocking glamorous gowns at award shows.

The wide leg pant trend continues into spring 2012. While heavy wool or lined pairs might not be ideal for the heat, wide legged pants in lightweight fabrics or denim can easily make the transition to spring. Lighten up dark coloured pants for the warmer months by pairing them with light colours up top – and replace the boots with wedges or high heeled sandals.

With Hannah MacGibbon out and Clare Waight Keller’s runway debut slated for this October, Chloé‘s Resort collection was put together by the design team. So this was a season less about floating new ideas and more about reworking house classics. Luckily for team Chloé, the seventies (the era from which Chloé sprang and the one favored by MacGibbon) are still lingering in the air. The flaring, wide-leg pants we’ve been seeing on the label’s Paris catwalk for the last several seasons (and on the streets everywhere) were back, in everything from black sequins to denim chambray to cotton sweatsuit fabric.

Solange Knowles hit the catwalk in a beaded, silver gown.

The ink has barely dried on Solange Knowles’ Next Model Management contact and she has already started hitting the catwalk.

Beyonce’s little sis jetted off to Milan this past weekend where she attended the Dolce & Gabanna Fall 2012 menswear presentation and capped off the trip by walking in the Alberta Ferretti “Limited Edition” demi-couture collection fashion show.

Like a seasoned pro, Solange worked the winding runway in a floor-sweeping silver gown with a beaded scoop neckline, fiery red lips and a perfectly pin-wheel curled afro.

Fellow natural hair beauties Julia Sarr-Jamois of Wonderland magazine and Oroma Elewa editor of Pop’Africana also served as models.

We don’t know about you, but we’re excited to see Solange start logging some catwalk miles.

She recently opened up about her new career with Vogue Italia explaining: “I don’t by any means consider myself the most qualified for model material. I think that people tend to respond to what is real. Black women carry that flame with so much ease and confidence. It is being captured and celebrated on all fronts in fashion now.”

Black models have sprung in the world of fashion for spring 2012.

And we’re in love with all the fabulous warm-weather-wear campaigns from the top fashion houses–especially with all the black models being featured.

Supermodel Joan Smalls gets acrobatic in Chanel, which was photographed by the collection’s designer Karl Lagerfeld and looks causally chic in Lacoste’s Spring campaign. While Liya Kebede lends her stunning good looks to Bottega Veneta’s woven creations.

And after over 25 years of modeling, Naomi Campbell proves she can still strike a pose with the best of them. Campbell is featured in both the Roberto Cavalli and PINKO campaigns this Spring.

Our absolute favorite ad comes courtesy of Herve Leger (aka the house of a million bandage dresses). America’s Next Top Model cycle 10 alum, Fatima Siad, looks drop dead gorgeous posing stoically and stylishly in front of a beautiful white horse.

Although they aren’t technically fashion models, Julia Sarr-Jamois of Wonderland magazine and singer Rihanna round out the group with chic campaigns of their own.

Take a look these gorgeous black beauties at the top of their game.

When Franca Sozzani, editor of Vogue Italia, visited the Huffington Post offices last month she revealed that her proudest professional moment was publishing the “Black Issue,” which helped promote diversity in the fashion industry.

Well, she continued that campaign with a trip to the African country of Ghana to mentor a group of designers from the WEB-Young Designers Hub.

While in the country, the group hosted a private fashion presentation in Sozzani’s honor to showoff their dazzling designs. There are a few videos of the trip on Vogue Italia’s website and Sozzani can’t stop taking pictures of all the colorful designs. The Vogue editrix was clearly impressed. She even praised the group for their superior work, telling them:

“You have lots of potential in this country. During my stay in Africa, I visited Togo and Nigeria but it was only here in Ghana I noted an authentic sense of fashion.”

She also offered some advice on gaining International recognition for their budding collections.

“In designing your creations, make sure that they feature not only references to Ghanaian culture but also have an international appeal so that your garments can also be successful also abroad.”

African-inspired clothing has become quite popular with high-end brands like Burberry being drawn to the aesthetic. So, we hope the creations from these talented Ghanaians designers make it onto the pages of Vogue Italia…and the clothing racks of some major retailers. There is certainly need (and room) for more fashion designers of color in the market.

Visit the Vogue Italia website to view videos from Sozzani’s trip.

 

“THE Paco Rabanne house must invent other things, touch different universes, have different outlook and reach out to the public differently,” said Rabanne when he announced that Manish Arora was going to head up its newly relaunched ready-to-wear division in February.

After showing a handful of chainmail dresses and handbags last season, today saw the debut of a full womenswear collection – though “womenswear” may be deemed a misnomer for anyone who might have been hoping to see something they might wear.

It was presented in the Pompidou Centre, entitled Femme Lumiere, and involved girls descending escalators to take to a catwalk swathed in chain metal dresses falling in degrade from silver to blue – a mermaid moment providing an aquatic reference in possibly the only connection to the collections we’ve seen elsewhere in Paris this week – sculpted mini dresses that were exaggerated at the shoulder and hip and clung everywhere else in iridescent sequins or petrol green silk.

Fibre optics lit up stiff tunics above shimmering leggings (one chain metal pair that made our eyes water), worn with ice pick heels, glittering eye shadow and hair pulled up into swinging pony tails. Some moved like electric sea urchins, smothered in sequins on stalks, and others had fiercely expanded shoulders and hips built up by metal embellishment. It was a futuristic light display with dresses in the mix and the plain, utilitarian leather tote bags that the girls carried beside them were a clear indication that this was an exercise in brand building. Buy a bag and you buy into the limitless possibilities of the Paco Rabanne world – should you so wish.

It was a spectacle, for sure – one that might have caught the eye of the likes of Lady Gaga before she moved into her vintage Versace mood. A finale of girls wearing red, green and gold foil full-body masks that rippled and flexed around them like frill-necked dragons underlined that point that Paco Rabanne has money to spare and wants to use it for pure entertainment.