VIDEO CNN's Elsa Klensch reports on the fall/winter collection from Narciso Rodriguez. Windows Media 28K 80K

August 16, 1999
Web posted at: 5:07 p.m. EDT (2107 GMT)

MILAN (CNN) -- To celebrate the beauty of a woman, Milan designer Narciso Rodriguez says you must get close to her skin. In keeping with that belief, his 1999 fall/winter collection features clothing made of pale skin colors that hug the body.

"The season was about flesh and skin and all the colors of blush," Rodriguez says. "The embroidery is on pale tones, so it looks as if you just stepped out of a shower and you had beads of water on your skin."

The collection holds some softly tailored suits that are constructed in corset-style to achieve that body-hugging shape. "It's very fitted," he says, "but again it's a fit that's very relaxed so even if it's very close to the body, there's a softness to it."

The fabrics, Rodriguez says, feel like a second skin.

"There are silk georgettes," he says, "doubled to create a new kind of density. There are beautiful cotton-nylon fabrics, silk-and-nylon fabrics that have a sheen instead of a shine. They're very relaxed because they contain cotton and nylon, but they're slick enough that they give it an edge."

CNN Style Correspondent Elsa Klensch contributed to this report.