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A clear-eyed look back at New York Fashion Week trends

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February 23, 2012|By Christopher Muther

While a handful of designers time traveled to the 1960s for their shows,… (CARLO ALLEGRI /REUTERS )

NEW YORK - Fashion prognosticators gazed into their crystal balls - and also into their crystal embossed pumps - early and often during New York Fashion Week. There was a frantic stampede to call trends for Fall/Winter 2012-2013, to predict hot colors, slap designers on their delicate wrists for missteps, and snap photos of Nicki Minaj doppelgangers for street style blogs.

If New York Fashion Week occurred 100 years ago, Barnum & Bailey would have declared it the greatest hot mess of a show on earth. There are nearly 300 shows crammed into seven days all over the city. Long before the week is over, writers and editors are pumping out summary stories while simultaneously making their travel plans to scurry off to the UK for London Fashion Week.

But New York Fashion Week deserves to be savored much like a fine butterscotch pots de crème. Last week, I was among those jumping to sartorial conclusions a tad too quickly. Tired and resembling a character from “The Walking Dead’’ (albeit slightly better groomed), I took to my laptop and tried to point a bony finger and cast a bloodshot eye at what was rushing past. Now, less sleep deprived and wearing a fresh pair of contacts, it’s time I revisit, and perhaps reconsider, what I saw. Yes, it’s more trend spotting, but at least this time my eyes aren’t blurry.

Asian travel: Zac Posen wasn’t the first designer of the week to take inspiration from Asia, but his was perhaps the most dramatic and surprising. He was inspired by Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor who lived in Asia before moving back to England. Posen may have watched one too many geisha films while designing (kimonos are unlikely to be the rage for 2013), but the elegance and grace of his structured, curve-hugging cocktail dresses will be a hit.

Time travel: Fashion designers love taking inspiration from the obscure. Case in point: Marchesa’s lovely collection based around the William-Adolphe Bouguereau painting “A Soul Brought to Heaven.’’ Don’t worry, I was shrugging my bourgeois shoulders at the reference as well. But some designers are happy to confess their guilty pop culture preferences through their collections. Ralph Lauren’s tweedy ode to “Downton Abbey’’ was both axiomatic and thrilling. I’m calling it now - next season, designers will be Charleston-ing around the 1920s thanks to “Abbey’’ and the forthcoming “The Great Gatsby.’’

Traveling light: The overall declaration for the color of Fall/Winter 2012 was no color. Black and gray loomed like fog over catwalks with dark sprinkles of blue. It’s an easy prediction to make. Every designer uses at least some black in their collection. But there, sandwiched in it all, was oxblood, tangerine, and burgundy. Most soothing of all were classic winter whites, ranging from Derek Lam’s apres ski cocktail party maxi dress to Lacoste’s sportier viewpoint of winter chill.