One look that’s been especially visible is military style. Designers have been eschewing flouncy in favor of fierce (apologies, Christian Siriano). Menswear influences have been abundant, and the palettes of some of fashion’s most girly designers have faded to gray and black.
“I think we tend to veer toward darker colors as a rule for Fall/Winter,’’ says Elle magazine creative director Joe Zee. “But recently there’s been so much color, color blocking, color this, color that. I think people just want to go back to basics.’’
And there was plenty of basic black and gray at Donna Karan, Christian Siriano, Jill Stuart, and even the always posh Carolina Herrera, who went to darker shades and neutrals for her runway shows.
“Sometimes I think blacks and neutrals are a palette freshener,’’ Zee says. “You have to clean it up and start over in a way. I think all the black I’ve seen is really beautiful. I saw gorgeous things today at Theyskens’ Theory. At the end of the day, we all love color, we all write about color, but look around. What’s everybody wearing here?’’
Trends often oddly surface across a wide range of designers during New York Fashion Week. It sometimes appears to be more than a coincidence, as if designers secretly rendezvous behind tall bolts of fabric and agree on the trends for the season. Early in the week, perhaps the most buzzed about trend surfaced in the form of military-inspired jackets, trousers, and dresses.
These varied widely based on the designer’s particular style, but there were the epaulets, the brass buttons, and the sharply tailored lines giving the illusion that a small platoon had landed on the catwalks of Lincoln Center.
