The reviews
1 Ralph Lauren
China is a major area of focus within fashion
right now. It’s like the new frontier for luxury brands, with houses
rolling out lavish store launches in the country faster than you can say
Hong Kong. So it makes perfect sense that Ralph Lauren would look to
the Far East for creative inspiration for fall. His mostly black
collection was filled with sleek and glamorous pieces accented with red
and black art deco details from the show’s opening look — a dolman
sleeved blouse and glossy trousers — to the show- stopping stunner that
closed it, a bugle beaded dress with a matching hood. Other highlights
included his fluid, satin dresses and a cocoon- shaped chinoiserie coat.
His collection also served as a final word on the trend for high-gloss,
shiny looks. Bottom line: Start breaking out your sequins now. –Kenya Hunt
2 Proenza Schouler
You are certainly not going to look
black-sweater-boring this fall if designers Jack McCollough and Lazaro
Hernandez have anything to do with it. Their collection was dominated by
multicolored tribal prints distorted to look futuristic, or at least
pixilated in a Pac-Man kinda way (which is futuristic for tribal,
right?). Fun, quirky, printed pants with shirts in bolts of strong
orange and yellow kicked off the show; pencil skirts with structural
folds and high slits in the front appeared next. In another series, it
was print-on-print action as chunky, graphic sweaters were paired with
similarly hued, but different patterned, pants. We get that this might
be a bit much to pull off, but you can always wear just the funky pants
with a black sweater for a completely cool outfit. –Tina Chadha
3 Anna Sui
The beauty of Anna Sui’s collections is her strong clarity of vision and how she reinterprets it each season without ever becoming predictable or boring. Each of her always-bohemian collections feels like a definitive moment, and it’s clear to her audience what that moment is. This season, it was a vibrantly colorful take on mod dressing with upbeat, swinging (pun intended) dresses in energetic prints and separates that mixed and matched art deco patterns and textures. This collection also had some of the sweetest capes we’ve seen all week, including a standout series in eggplant and lime green. –KH
4 Christian Cota
When one thinks of fashion, Tibet doesn’t necessarily come to mind. But Cota mined the country’s sartorial traditions to produce an impressively tailored collection in rich fabrics and
flattering, easy-to-wear shapes. These were clothes that transcend the trends, although he addressed those too: His take on the season’s popular glam fur coat was especially appealing. The overall sophisticated, seasonless sensibility to the clothes make them perfect for women concerned with investing in looks that don’t have an expiration date. –KH
5 Bibhu Mohapatra
It was a dramatic scene at Bibhu Mohapatra’s fall collection as loud opera music and eerie fog (courtesy of a smoke machine) surrounded the elegantly dressed models. “I am trying to capture this girl who I call ‘urban pilgrim,’” said the designer, who drew inspiration from Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible.” “The pilgrims were very strong in their beliefs, and every one of us has that side. I’m trying to scratch the surface of that and make the girl much younger, much edgier, but still very pure, chic and sophisticated.” How did that translate to his clothes? Tough jackets, some in luxurious fur and goat hair, were made ladylike by cinching at the waist. Knee-length dresses came with asymmetrical neck and hemlines, and there were lots of architectural cuts and folds. –TC
The coolest Fashion Week party
Alexander Wang is known to throw the coolest Fashion Week soiree. But this year — maybe because he was also celebrating the opening of his first store in SoHo — the designer truly outdid himself. Yes, celebs like Kanye West, Santigold and Zoe Kravitz sipped on Veuve Clicquot and danced it up, but only those party animals who stuck around late-night bore witness to the ultimate treat: a surprise performance by Ms. Lauryn Hill! This one’s going to be hard to top.
