Patterns, from graphic checks and stripes to leafy prints with a hint of "green," are also evident.
The clothes are simply cut but come in strong solid colors, graphic checks and plaids or bold floral prints.
Graphic checks and seafaring stripes were part of Bouchra Jarrar's streamlined collection — more for next winter than a couture summer line.
Now Ms. Schweitzer travels regularly with her design team, trolling for street style and runway inspiration, as at Louis Vuitton's spring collection with its graphic checks.
By making them in graphic checks, and giving them a bit of air, Mr. Van Noten made them irresistible, even to women who think they look a little too cute.
There are of course subtle ways to wear the look – a colourful motif overlaid on a background of graphic checks or stripes, for example, are perhaps the most office-appropriate versions.
"Charming" and "refreshing" are the words that seem appropriate for Carven, where Guillaume Henry's inspiration from Vallauris, historically an artist's hub in the Provence region of France, brought the painterly colors of Matisse and van Gogh: egg-yoke yellow, blue green and tangerine, with graphic checks or with color-block sleeves contrasting with the torso.
"The day before a show," he said, "I tell myself, 'I definitely want to explore this look next season, or I definitely don't.' " The fall 2013 collection was in part a product of his fascination with ska, the Jamaican precursor to reggae embraced by young Brits in the 1960s, their look an amalgam of skinny dark suits and ties, graphic checks, porkpie hats and, for girls, tight shirts and minis.
And for insightful graphics, check out @ranoa.
