You did not need the show notes. The show was in the MoMA Sculpture Garden, and Nico's voice on Sunday Morning came over the speakers, so it was obvious where we were headed. Michael Kors said a trip to Paris for the Calder exhibition, a visit to LACMA and moving into a new house had him thinking modernist.

He also said he is a hot weather baby, and when it gets warm he wants something that pops. I think that honesty is why this works. It is a designer dressing for his own favorite weather.

The references are the ones everyone has been playing since Edie Sedgwick and Nico: Calder sculptures, Matisse cutouts, a graphic canvas by Carmen Herrera. What I like is that he keeps them crisp instead of nostalgic. The cuts are sharp and often asymmetrical, with hems that zig-zag left to right, run shorter in front, or trail streamers from the side seams.

The palette is red, yellow, green and blue against white and black. About a quarter of the looks have one of those asymmetric hems, and I would say it is the detail that makes the show move.

He also leaves room for decoration. Brushstroke paintings show up as prints and as raw-edged embroideries, and Matisse's curvy cutouts become the outline of a sequined cocktail dress. I love that one, because it is the least expected way to use an artist and it still feels like a party dress. Nothing here is precious, which is how you can tell the clothes are meant for people who go out. I would wear that dress with flat shoes and not take it seriously.

I think the accessories are the real composition. Layered leather pendants, bags with metal handles inspired by Marcel Breuer's tubular steel chairs, bug-eye frames, the long scarf that has suddenly become everywhere, and white go-go boots. Nearly a fifth of the looks wear a long pendant, and a fifth wear bold or tinted glasses.

If I were copying one idea, it would be a pendant over a plain black knit. And if MoMA really does have a Mondrian exhibition on the schedule for 2027, then primary colors are about to look very smart.