Streamlined sleek gowns and pulled together sportswear had longtime fan Liza Minnelli cheering in the front row. Francisco Costa continued to refine the minimalism that has always been the signature of Calvin Klein collections.
Donna Karan got the shape message and made it her own, adding volume to not-very-flattering, slouchy, draped shapes. Call it relaxed, if you will, but Karan was a long way from the power dressing that made her famous.
Marc Jacobs, the most copied designer in America, presented a collection of shockingly wearable (for him, anyway) coats and jackets with low-slung sashes, some with front vertical folds and others with shawl-collared pouch backs.
Tadashi Shoji's collection of draped and tied gowns and sportswear (his first ever) looked deceptively simple but on closer inspection revealed a complex tour de force of construction.
Color is also a divisive issue for designers; some are standing still, others are endorsing change. There are those caught in a time warp, not budging further than gray from reliable black.
But more sensitive creators have moved on to a deep, rich palette of antique colors: garnet, bronze, emerald, taupe, iris, absinthe and blue.
The new mood is most apparent in the shapes and structure seen on the runways. Gone are most of the skintight and exhibitionistic get-ups of the recent celebrity-driven past. Dresses remain important, but they aren't baby dolls anymore. The incoming silhouettes are more like sculpture made of fabrics that drape, fold, swirl, bunch and envelop the body.
This complex construction recalls the golden age of haute couture in the 1950s when Charles James, Jacques Fath and Madame Alix Gres created some of the most breathtaking, dramatically shaped and draped clothes in fashion history.
Once again, designers are trying to take our breath away. Some succeed: Shoji, Costa, Zanini, Kors, Karan, Vera Wang and, surprisingly, the grad students from San Francisco's Academy of Art University.
This season, fabric is the eye candy and tactile inducement for many designers.
Brocade, metallic tweed, wool lace, silk charmeuse, chiffon, boiled cashmere, tapestry, moire, velvet, jacquard, taffeta - and outfits usually mixed and layered them together.
As if that wasn't enough, longhaired fur trims were used lavishly as wraps, as sleeves and in shrugs. And there were even feathers flying occasionally as they were worked into fabric, used as trims on garments and hats and mixed into furs.
Som's juxtapositions of mouth-watering luxury fabrics stood out. An ombre shaded mink jacket topped a plaid taffeta skirt and smudged floral silk top.
Carolina Herrera showed mixes of hunting checks, taffeta, chiffon and fox fur.
DKNY jumbled metallic brocade, spotted chiffon and bulky knits.
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