Rent the Runway's new designer collabs are here to refresh your summer wardrobe

Rent the Runway heralds a summer wardrobe of unfettered exuberance: bold colors, bold prints, skin-baring cutouts and event-ready elegance. The luxury rental service's Design Collective is back, this time with exclusive collections from four designers known for their electric, eye-catching pieces: Esteban Cortazar, Jonathan Saunders, Busayo Olupona and Pamela Love.

Since its inception in 2018, the Design Collective has featured some of the biggest emerging names in fashion, including Prabal Gurung, Jason Wu, Thakoon Panichgul, Derek Lam, Marissa Webb, and more. According to RTR CEO and Co-Founder Jenn Hyman, Design Collective pieces are "consistently among the most requested and loved on the site", but this season's selections, in particular, "really represent the new guard. fashion," Hyman told ELLE.com. in an email interview.

Example: Cortazar's collection, releasing today, offers a range of playful dresses in warm hues, inventive cuts and sumptuous textures. A mini tank dress, for example, is enhanced by the bold choice of a clementine-hued knit material and an asymmetrical ruffled hem. Other flamenco dresses in the collection play with the same hem pattern, while a crochet midi dress in magenta and yellow colourways weaves in tiny cutouts for an accessible (yet sexy) station-ready look. . Finally, a linen-blend dress in a cheery pink embodies what Cortazar calls the "sense of freedom" he feels as a designer, two decades after debuting his first collection at New York Fashion Week, when the youngest creator in history to do so.

"We went through my archives together with the RTR team, and I came up with a color story based on my adoration for sunsets and sunrises, something that is kind of always present in my work,” Cortazar said in an email.

Although the remaining designer collections are landing separately on Rent the Runway over the summer (Saunders is slated for June 7; Love's for June 16; and Olupona's for June 27 ), buyers can get a taste of what's to come simply by understanding their design philosophy.

Scottish designer Saunders is known for his unorthodox plays on traditional prints; its RTR collection will feature inventive florals paired with silky, forgiving materials. Love's all-wear capsule will look familiar to fans of its famous chunky gold jewelry made with recycled materials and ethically sourced stones. Finally, the work of Brooklyn-based Nigerian designer Olupona is "inspired by Yoruba culture and tradition and tells a dynamic color story," she told ELLE.com in an email. His RTR designs will draw on the hand-dyed patterns that have made his garments in high demand at retailers like Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman.