Milan Fashion Week: Missoni Spring 2011 Pumps Up The Volume

Making her way through a cacophony of vibrant colors and exotic, kaleidoscopic shapes, Angela Missoni told reporters that her collection for Spring/Summer 2011 was "a trip"--in more ways than one.

The Missoni family upped the ante with their signature prints, injecting brighter colors and trippy, exaggerated zig-zags; it was a bizarre, yet positively dreamy vision of classic Missoni on acid. Then, Angela and her daughter Margherita sent their girls on a no-holds-barred, multiculti romp through exotic lands: ancient African and Aztec villages, Japan, Jamaica, Mexico, Vietnam...what returned were luxe, modern voodoo goddesses clad in bold, hallucinatory crop tops, maxi skirts, voluminous caftans and tunics, and jackets. There was a vague tribal influence, and when coupled with funky slogans like "shake your rump," "bang bang," and "get up off that thing," it gave the Missoni patterns an extra punch; further details like metallics, fringing, beads, and stones lent those floaty silhouettes an eccentric, textural heft.

It was all an eclectic, psychedelic vision of the iconic Missoni traveler; accessories like chunky, fluorescent knitted sandals and oversized square headgear (part mortar board, part witch, part paddy hat) proved that this was new, energetic direction for the house. It's been quite the trip, and one we'd like to take with Missoni again!