SundayArts first caught up with designer Jen Kao in February when she unveiled her collection for Fall 2011 at Lincoln Center. The young designer featured fringe accents and avant-garde accessories like wedge boots and filigree jewelry. Her inspiration started with the song “Ashes to Ashes,” by David Bowie, and from there, prints inspired by NASA aerial photography delivered a collection of ethereal glam.

For Spring 2012, her poetic show notes painted a picture of streetwear inspired by “The Poison Garden” and a blend of American style with world cultures. Kao’s color scheme is culled from sunrises and sunsets, and signature graphic prints like the “toxic lei” lend to her vision of “an uncontainable atmosphere of intoxicating plants, thermal haze… and the creatures that evolve within.”

Accents of artful paper constructions, rose gold jewelry and sporty footwear topped off the dreamy dawn-dusk botanical tableau.

Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 looks by Jen Kao: