FROM the cool downtown looks at Marc by Marc Jacobs to the supreme uptown chic at Bill Blass, there was something for everyone at Fashion Week yesterday.
Well, almost everyone: Celeb watchers were out of luck. There was nary a Hollywood A-lister in sight at the shows. And while that wasn’t good news for the paparazzi who have been lurking around the Bryant Park tents since Friday, it was great for those of us who in the past have been mowed down by overzealous camera crews rushing to get a shot of, oh, that kid from “The Sopranos” or whoever.
Yesterday was, thankfully, all about the clothes. Catherine Malandrino’s show was full of sexy little blouses, slinky dresses and fun bomber jackets with crazy zip-off sleeves. She also debuted some leather patchwork bags that are gonna be on everyone’s must-have list for fall.
Malandrino’s sloping platform pumps were another story. If models trained to walk in high heels can’t walk in them without falling, no one can.
A better choice of footwear might be the peppy kitten-heeled pumps that Marc Jacobs included in his lower-priced Marc line, a favorite brand of discerning fashion magazine interns citywide.
As usual, Marc’s show was a fabulous jumble of modern slacker gear, like cropped sweatpants, plaid miniskirts and some very fun cheetah print corduroy pants and trench coats.
If it was the high schooler left in me that loved Marc and the slim striped pantsuits in Richard Tyler’s Tyler collection, it was the wanna-be sophisticate who adored the elegant duds at designer Lars Nilsson’s Bill Blass show.
The latter included a slew of double-faced wool suits, chiffon cocktail dresses and patterned silk gowns in amazing colors, plus some of the best fur coats seen this week (sorry, Puffy).
There was a different kind of elegance working at Behnaz Sarafpour’s show.
There, models wore ballet slippers with everything from figure-hugging capri pants and jackets with exaggerated collars, gold brocade dresses belted with little ribbons (also seen: a Carolina Herrera and Alice Roi . . . do we smell a trend?), and some full organza skirts that would have been at home on stage at the New York City Ballet.
Sarafpour’s below-the-knee-length skirts were the exception at a Fashion Week brimming with minis (best get used to them, folks: they’re here for a while).
There were gams-a-go-go at Charles Nolan’s Anne Klein show, which had plenty of minis.
There were brief skirts for day and night: a sultry black sequined minidress that would be welcome at any cocktail party, and Nolan’s brightly hued, pleated rah-rah skirts would work, well, just about everywhere else.