February 23, 1999
Web posted at: 7:26 p.m. EST (0026 GMT)

From Style Correspondent Elsa Klensch

MILAN, Italy (CNN) -- Milan designer Narcisco Rodriguez's spring/summer collection is nature-inspired from color to fabric as he experiments with reflections on water and light.

In his third collection under his own name, Rodriguez says it is time for self-reflection. The result is new color blends and new ways of treating fabrics.

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"I started to design the collection by designing the fabric. ... I had some antique fabrics that I had developed into new fabrics, and then introduced reflective materials into the fabrics," Rodriguez says.

Using materials such as "Lurex" and polyester, he made a patina on a very traditional linen, creating a solid shine.

"It's a block of color, and everything became color-blocked which played against the layered idea, and became like this harmonious thing," Rodriguez says. "It was a little bit of a zen experience actually."

He says the inspiration for the colors come from water. There is a lot of white, silver, blue, green and clear embroidery in the collection.

"There are a lot of deep blues, turquoise, deep greens, as if you sailed out to the deepest part of the ocean and then came inland and saw every color of blue that you can imagine," he says. "Those are the colors. They're strong and they all work with each other. It looks right."

The shapes are relaxed, evolving from his previous two collections.

The lengths are shorter for spring and the shoulders are a bit exaggerated, either by being bared or having a little extra fabric around them. The waist is always accentuated.

"It's a marriage of my first collection which was totally sensual, very feminine. And then my second collection was a little bit more experimental," the designer says. "It had a lot more fabric development."

Rodriguez says he loved creating the collection from inventing new fabrics and things to do with them to treating tailor ideas in a new way. "I want to celebrate the woman's beauty and I felt I had achieved that when I looked at all of it together."