January 11, 1999
Web posted at: 8:30 p.m. EST (0130 GMT)

From Style Correspondent Elsa Klensch

NEW YORK (CNN) -- For spring/summer, Donna Karan is in a mood for fantasy. Dresses are light as air, billowy silhouettes flow away from the body and sugary, iridescent colors are as sweet as candy.

But it's modern fantasy that she's showing with sweater knits, sensuous chiffons and twisted taffetas.

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To keep it all grounded, Karan does flat shoes that she says have a personality all their own.

"It is an evolvement of this last spring collection from last year and the fall collection of silhouettes and structure," Karan says. "Now take that and sort of push it all with air.

"There's nothing in it, so it creates this rustling kind of effect."

Fabrics include washed silk taffeta and laundered cotton.

"It's like you were taking your clothes and putting it on a hanger and just letting them out to air," Karan says.

Aside from her sweet colors of pink and strawberry shades, Karan makes white important, saying it is white that's "clean and as fresh as can be."

With clothes that have so much personality, Karan says accessories are not important. However, she says shoes are special.

One is what she calls a "shower cap" kind of shoe with a ballet look. The other has a "funky" heel on a wood and leather sole.

Hair and makeup are simple and fresh.

"Natural, beautiful color on the face. We want the casualness of the hair and it's sort of rumpled, you know -- but it's done with intention," Karan says. "So it's not just letting your hair go naturally, but we've created the natural."