Summer straw prints at Japanese label Miyake

Issey Miyake was on trend today with a spring-summer 2011 ready-to-wear show woven around pretty straw prints.

Featherlight sundresses in sunny yellow fabric printed with the woven straw seats of traditional wooden chairs from Provence had all the charm of a summer in the south of France. The prints, also served up in black-and-white, recalled the tree-print collection by California label Rodarte, which showed in New York last month to considerable praise.

Miyake, a Japanese label known for its innovative fabrics, also sent out less flashy summer basics in sober black and white prints and solids.

A white shift dress had the bumpy texture of a tortoise shell woven into the high-tech fabric, and a pair of harem pants was knit with cobweb cutouts.

A cropped pantsuit in tiny vertical pleats had the texture of a sheet of crisp white paper and crumpled at the hips as the model walked, while horizontally pleated A-line dress printed with black and white rings jiggled like jelly.

The collection didn't break any new ground for the label but was still light, lovely and appealing.