The Leftovers: New York Fashion Week FW12

In New York, the narrative of the season was dominated by one figure. The Lady, at least the one that features prominently in western history and literature, never fades too far from view in the world of fashion. Even though the elements that define her look shift as one moves from decade to decade, she is often recognizable at first sight. In past seasons, her influence has ranged from direct copies of any one of her many incarnations to the simple suggestion of her presence in the choice of silhouette. Whenever she returns to the height of relevance, it is with an almost obsessive fervor. She looks, smells, and feels of wealth but rarely ever speaks of it, and for many in the industry that makes her all the more intriguing.

Considering the shadow she cast over the pre-Fall collections, I wasn’t surprised to see her appear all over the runways and presentation spaces of New York this season. As is often the case when she appears, she seemed to be hiding something, something that was trying to bubble to the surface. The shapes were tighter. The gloves extended past her elbows. Leather ornamented her shift dresses. A dark sensuality hung around whenever she entered the room.

At Z Spoke by Zac Posen

At Diane von Furstenberg

At Milly

At Thakoon

At Chadwick Bell

At Jason Wu

At Michael Kors

At Narciso Rodriguez

That barely contained darkness penetrated all corners. A hard edge could be seen in the deep, wine tones that dominated the color story.

At Peter Som

At Z Spoke by Zac Posen

At Tory Burch

At Rodarte

At Reed Krakoff

At 3.1 Phillip Lim

At Elizabeth and James

And it revealed itself again in the use of fabrics like leather, brocade, and velvet, which seem to absorb all of the light around them.

At Derek Lam

At Richard Chai Love

At Monique Lhuillier

At RAD by Rad Hourani

At DKNY

At Doo.Ri

At Chado Ralph Rucci

At Ralph Lauren

At Marc Jacobs

At Oscar de la Renta

At Proenza Schouler

At Rebecca Taylor

At Rachel Zoe

In its role as the marker of a lady of a certain period, the peplum continued to crop up all over New York. Its prevalence waned, but it refused to be done with us just yet.

At Elizabeth and James

At 10 Crosby Derek Lam

At 3.1 Phillip Lim

At Preen

At Wes Gordon

At Ports 1961

There was an outlying trend that defied this narrative. Blankets of all sorts doubled as coats. Belted or wrapped or given just enough shape to make one almost forget their origin.

At Vera Wang

At Norma Kamali

At VPL

At Ohne Titel

At Mara Hoffman

At Y-3

At Rag & Bone

They told a softer, cozier story in a season that was anything but.

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Favorite of the Day: Yves Saint Laurent

This season, like almost every season he has worked there, the rumors about Stefano Pilati's ouster from Yves Saint Laurent bled through the industry. I ignored them for the most part since no matter how rabid the sources have been over the years, his demise never materialized. I hoped that the rumors would stay what they had always been. Rumors.

Unfortunately for him, and for us, that was not the case. Yesterday's show was his last. All of the colors, as well as any hint of lightness, present during the previous season were drained away and replaced by a hard sensuality.

The mood fell in line with that of the season, but there was something else (possibly the chain mail dresses) that made the YSL woman seem as if she were ready for battle.


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Favorite of the Day: Haider Ackermann

This season, Haider Ackermann continued his usual stunning work. His clothes are always obviously of his hand, and yet his vision never stands still.

He played with some of the prominent shapes of the season but in that way that only he can.


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Favorite of the Day: Chalayan

After three weeks of muted colors even I, as devoted to neutrals as I am, lusted for something different. Yesterday in Paris that need was fulfilled by the Chalayan show.

It wasn't just that there was color. It was the way in which they were combined. Minty green with gray. Tangerine with a mustard like yellow.

Color combinations that don't come to mind naturally but that you can't believe lived without.


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Favorite of the Day: Balenciaga

Designers spend a lot of time looking to the past and to the future. The present doesn't seem to interest them. I don't find this fact all that surprising. When one thinks about it, the present is fleeting and almost impossible to grasp. The past and the future, however, stretch on endlessly.

When fashion looks forward, often the result is filled with kitsch and cliché. A Jetsons mashup that verges on costume. At the Balenciaga show on March 1st, the target was the future without the costume. It was a future filled with new shapes and garments made of multiple fabrics.

But of course, Nicolas Ghesquière is always looking ahead even as so many others look back.


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Favorite of the Day: Gareth Pugh

If my memory is correct, and it usually is, a color that does not live somewhere on the spectrum between black and white has never made its way down a Gareth Pugh runway.

For some designers such devotion to a set of colors or a type of print would devolve into both a gimmick and a crutch. The product would be clothes that said "this is what I'm known for because I can't do anything else". But that has never been the feeling one gets from Pugh's collections.

Instead of playing up the supple, soft side of leather like so many others have this season, he shredded it into small strips or cut it into rectangular blocks before reforming it into sculptural pieces.

In a season all about toughness, he was right on the mark.


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