"That's why it's particularly upsetting when we lose a designer collection like this."

Of course, there are fresh touches - this is, after all, a designer collection.

She would not design the clothes, but would house the designer collections at the store.

It might not seem the best of times for starting a young designer collection.

There was a time when high-priced designer collections were for Western eyes only.

"I buy from designer collections about 15 percent of the time," she said.

"The same effort, if not more, goes into these clothes as the quote-unquote designer collections," he said.

The best of the young designer collections identified some patterns that may bear watching.

Shorts have a more important place in designer collections for warm weather than they had a year ago.

Our aim, though, is not to buy designer collections but items we think have the feeling of the season.