Styles turn on the light
Designers were showing their 2008 autumn and winter collections in New York until yesterday. The crowd now moves on to London for its own fashion week.
The annual strutting of New York Fashion Week kicked off last Friday in the red, with a bevy of actresses and other celebrities wearing the colour as part of the Red Dress Campaign, to alert women to the dangers of heart disease.
This year's fashion week has lured celebrity visitors from the west coast, hungry for an outing after the long Hollywood writers' strike, as well as fashionistas with the promise of offerings from hundreds of houses of fashion.
Among them are perennial all-American favourites such as Diane von Furstenberg, Michael Kors and Vera Wang, and young, relative unknowns such as Carlos Miele and Iodice from Brazil.
The queen of US designers, von Furstenberg, offered a spy-themed collection harking back to wartime Berlin as she presented her latest creations.
Opening with the sensual voice of onetime German cabaret singer Marlene Dietrich, the show, entitled Foreign Affair, seemed intent on convincing the audience that women can look elegant even in times of crisis.
In a packed room, watched by celebrities including Hollywood star Susan Sarandon, the cinched tweed suits came out one after the other.
With felt caps over big hair, models wore large, military-style coats tempered with a distinctly feminine cut. Overcoats were grey backed with prune, sometimes in mesh, revealing a blue satin dress, for example, underneath.
Furstenberg also offered dresses in gold or silver lame with a single shoulder strap or with shorter black and silver patchwork thread and fringed hemlines.
Her spy models carried large brown leather luggage, signed by the designer, and wore Chinese-style close fitted dresses with low collars, split up the side and printed with large black flowers over ivory.
After their shift from Berlin to Shanghai, von Furstenberg's models swapped overcoats for short leather jackets covering organza blouses offset by pencil skirts in green taffeta.
The collection Caroline Herrera presented was full of brown, blue, mustard yellow and a lot of feathers.
Models donned Peter Pan hats with their windowpane coats, riding pants and even taffeta cocktail dresses. Many of the outfits also featured ornithology-inspired prints, one was delicate wing print and the other was a more colourful bird print.
The bird print was stunning on a chiffon embroidered gown dotted all over with ostrich feathers. For those who prefer a more subtle look, there was a strapless gown in bronze taffeta with a feather waistband.
Daytime ensembles included a sleeveless blouse made up of a series of rust and black patches paired with a mustard-coloured embroidered skirt, and a double-face wool cape with a tweed vest, bronze silk blouse and riding pant.
Herrera definitely continued with the emerging trend of adding something fancy to an otherwise more casual outfit, or the reverse of adding something cosy to an elegant evening ensemble.
Using paper airplanes as a starting point, Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough, the designers behind Proenza Schouler, sent out captivating looks created by folding single pieces of jewel-toned silk twill and wool melton.
Confidence and colour were the trademarks of the outstanding collection. They created femininity and modernity, with their quiet nod to Donald Judd.
About 12 hours after the Proenza Schouler show, Mark Badgley and James Mischka, showed their collection. An unmistakable 1970s vibe ran through the collection, from floppy hats to velvet pants to the metallic sheen on just about everything. Women, famous or not, turn to the pair for evening looks, and Badgley Mischka did not disappoint.
Marc Jacobs toughened up his less-expensive label, sending his models out wearing black biker jackets, leather dresses and superslim tuxedo jackets looking like squeaky-clean 1980s' punk rebels.
French "sports chic" label Lacoste wowed the crowd with a ski-themed show, kicking off the 75th year of the little crocodile that conquered the United States. Under a sprinkling of fake snow, models stepped out onto a covering of white sheep fleeces.
Warm grey flannel trousers with white cashmere pullovers set a classic note for the ski slope, while shorts and stripy dresses over thick tights for freezing weather and white windbreakers drew applause from a packed hall.
The multi-coloured show also conjured the music of 1970s in a homage to the decade when Lacoste, according to its external relations chief Philippe Lacoste, sold nearly 30 million garments a year in the US.
This year's fashion week has lured celebrity visitors from the west coast, hungry for an outing after the long Hollywood writers' strike, as well as fashionistas with the promise of offerings from hundreds of houses of fashion.
Among them are perennial all-American favourites such as Diane von Furstenberg, Michael Kors and Vera Wang, and young, relative unknowns such as Carlos Miele and Iodice from Brazil.
The queen of US designers, von Furstenberg, offered a spy-themed collection harking back to wartime Berlin as she presented her latest creations.
Opening with the sensual voice of onetime German cabaret singer Marlene Dietrich, the show, entitled Foreign Affair, seemed intent on convincing the audience that women can look elegant even in times of crisis.
In a packed room, watched by celebrities including Hollywood star Susan Sarandon, the cinched tweed suits came out one after the other.
With felt caps over big hair, models wore large, military-style coats tempered with a distinctly feminine cut. Overcoats were grey backed with prune, sometimes in mesh, revealing a blue satin dress, for example, underneath.
Furstenberg also offered dresses in gold or silver lame with a single shoulder strap or with shorter black and silver patchwork thread and fringed hemlines.
Her spy models carried large brown leather luggage, signed by the designer, and wore Chinese-style close fitted dresses with low collars, split up the side and printed with large black flowers over ivory.
After their shift from Berlin to Shanghai, von Furstenberg's models swapped overcoats for short leather jackets covering organza blouses offset by pencil skirts in green taffeta.
The collection Caroline Herrera presented was full of brown, blue, mustard yellow and a lot of feathers.
Models donned Peter Pan hats with their windowpane coats, riding pants and even taffeta cocktail dresses. Many of the outfits also featured ornithology-inspired prints, one was delicate wing print and the other was a more colourful bird print.
The bird print was stunning on a chiffon embroidered gown dotted all over with ostrich feathers. For those who prefer a more subtle look, there was a strapless gown in bronze taffeta with a feather waistband.
Daytime ensembles included a sleeveless blouse made up of a series of rust and black patches paired with a mustard-coloured embroidered skirt, and a double-face wool cape with a tweed vest, bronze silk blouse and riding pant.
Herrera definitely continued with the emerging trend of adding something fancy to an otherwise more casual outfit, or the reverse of adding something cosy to an elegant evening ensemble.
Using paper airplanes as a starting point, Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough, the designers behind Proenza Schouler, sent out captivating looks created by folding single pieces of jewel-toned silk twill and wool melton.
Confidence and colour were the trademarks of the outstanding collection. They created femininity and modernity, with their quiet nod to Donald Judd.
About 12 hours after the Proenza Schouler show, Mark Badgley and James Mischka, showed their collection. An unmistakable 1970s vibe ran through the collection, from floppy hats to velvet pants to the metallic sheen on just about everything. Women, famous or not, turn to the pair for evening looks, and Badgley Mischka did not disappoint.
Marc Jacobs toughened up his less-expensive label, sending his models out wearing black biker jackets, leather dresses and superslim tuxedo jackets looking like squeaky-clean 1980s' punk rebels.
French "sports chic" label Lacoste wowed the crowd with a ski-themed show, kicking off the 75th year of the little crocodile that conquered the United States. Under a sprinkling of fake snow, models stepped out onto a covering of white sheep fleeces.
Warm grey flannel trousers with white cashmere pullovers set a classic note for the ski slope, while shorts and stripy dresses over thick tights for freezing weather and white windbreakers drew applause from a packed hall.
The multi-coloured show also conjured the music of 1970s in a homage to the decade when Lacoste, according to its external relations chief Philippe Lacoste, sold nearly 30 million garments a year in the US.