Spring fashions will pop in technicolor

Fashion Week Day 2

updated 6:48 p.m. ET Sept. 6, 2007

NEW YORK - After a season of gray, expect spring fashions to pop in technicolor.

The runways at New York Fashion Week were awash with color Thursday, from candy-hued magentas and yellows to muted shades of blush pink, light tan and dusty blue. It’s a far cry from the gray that dominated the fall lines.

Sunny yellow and candylike pink and blue created the palette for Miss Sixty (where the skinny jean lives on), while standouts at Bill Blass came in blush-colored silk-satin and gunmetal silk organza. At Nicole Miller late Wednesday, stained-glass prints and earthy colors dominated.

Michael Fink, fashion director at Saks Fifth Avenue, said it wasn’t yet clear what the big color story will be: candy-colored brights, subdued cosmetics colors or black and white. The only mistake, he said, would be to wear any of them head to toe.

New York Fashion Week lasts eight days, previewing the spring-summer looks of 60 designers for fashion editors, retail buyers and stylists. Highlights this season will include Ralph Lauren celebrating his 40 years in fashion with a black-tie dinner Saturday night.

Badgley Mischka
The Badgley Mischka spring collection offers a grand mix of town and country.

The upscale label that has been a favorite source of eveningwear for celebrities and socialites has made an effort over the last two years to diversify its offerings, which meant a parade of Badgley Mischka gowns, day dresses, pants, shoes, sunglasses, swimwear, hats and handbags down the runway at the biggest venue at the Bryant Park tents during New York Fashion Week Thursday.

“There were glamorous gowns to weekend chic. It really was a modern way of thinking,” said Michael Fink, fashion director at Saks Fifth Avenue.

CNBC video Buying the VIP treatment Sept. 6: Swiping your credit card won't get you next to the catwalk, but it will get you into a luxury skybox over the action. CNBC

“This was really the comeback collection,” Fink said. “It was glamorous for the evening but there were also modern, long and lean looks. There was just enough dazzle.”

An orange-and-black print tunic with black wool pants — wide legs were the standard here — was topped with a brown shantung jacket that had just a bit of sheen. A dark denim jacket with half sleeves and a brown-and-black print camisole were worn with pants made of that same shantung fabric.

A coat covered in a yellow, black and white floral was graphic but not overpowering — and it looked just right over a simple black gauze dress.

The swimsuits were fancier than you’d normally see on a beach. A black and white ombre one-piece suit made of jersey with an overlay of netting had a completely open back, for example. It certainly was attractive, especially on a model’s body, but begged the question of who would wear it? And where?

Maybe a TV star — on Wisteria Lane? “Desperate Housewives”’ Teri Hatcher, who stars in the current Badgley Mischka ad campaign, sat in the front row at the show.

Perhaps Hatcher was shopping for a gown for the upcoming Emmy awards. Her choices included a pink-and-white stripe chiffon gown with dainty pink beading along the halter neck, a black-and-nude chiffon gown with asymmetrical pleat details that all came together around a crystal belt buckle or a breezy chiffon gown in a violet, white and black print with a delicately beaded waistband that had a panel of fabric trail behind it.

Charles Nolan
Charles Nolan ditched stick-thin waifs in favor of “civilian models” to present his whimsical spring line Thursday at New York Fashion Week.

In an art gallery loft far from the Bryant Park tents, dancers from the American Ballet Theatre twirled down the runway in blocks of blue, pine green, brown and violet. The collection was heavy with pleats and lace; a-shaped tunics and wide-legged pants were balanced with twill shorts and jersey wrap sweaters.

Nolan, whose other models included a human rights lawyer, students and a “holistic practitioner,” said his collection was inspired by children’s travel book illustrations, “wonderfully sophisticated and yet so simple.”

He showed a sense of humor with pieces like a “twister chemise,” a white dress with vivid circles of color like the classic game, and a scarf dress that was sheer and blocky.

Men’s pants were either slightly cropped with cuffs or slouchy and loose, like a pinstriped “paper bag” pant. A male dancer pirouetted in a dinner jacket paired with strawberry pink shorts.

Standouts for women were white cotton and indigo sack dresses and an impeccably tailored white faille dinner suit.

Tim Gunn of Bravo’s “Project Runway” and “Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style” said he had a grin on his face throughout the show: “I was blown away.”

But the real show-stealers were the civilian models, including a gray-haired woman who works at the U.S. mission to the United Nations and a handful of children who walked the runway, one of them reaching out to the press, retailers and socialites in the front row.

Cynthia Steffe
The collection presented by Cynthia Steffe designer Waleed Khairzada on Thursday at New York Fashion Week was called “Sonic.” It could have been called sherbet.

The colors were what seemed to jump off the runway. There was a mix of fuschia, green, turquoise, poppy and citrine. “A palette of clear neon brights ... is grounded by mineral colors and earth tones,” Khairzada explained in his notes to the press, retailers and stylists at the show.

Slide show New York Fashion Week BCBG Max Azria, Perry Ellis unveil their 2008 spring collections at Bryant Park. more photos

One of the emerging trends from these spring previews is color-blocking: mixing a handful of colors on a single garment but not in a purposeful print. Instead, it’s about having one color around the neck, another for the bodice and another for the hem. Examples from Cynthia Steffe include an asymmetrical knit dress with magenta, black and green, and the “barcode” dress with horizontal stripes in blue and red against a white backdrop.

The shapes also were interesting. There were several dresses with dropped waists and long skirts. There was an easiness about them that would be particularly tempting in warm weather — and many of the looks were topped with cropped cardigans for when the evening chill sets in.

This was yet another catwalk that was defined by its dresses, but Khairzada did offer a handful of “Montauk” shorts, presumably named for the Long Island, N.Y., vacation community that’s considered one of the more casual parts of the Hamptons. The best way to describe the shorts is looser and more relaxed than their Bermuda cousins.

MORE FROM ARTS, BOOKS, MORE

Arts, books, more Section Front

New Italian museum has eye toward art’s future Black comedians crack under pressure Warhol’s dollar bills painting fetches millions Ali Vincent on going from fat to ‘Biggest Loser’ Carrie Prejean: ‘I was not having sex’ in video How dog poop led to love for Paula Deen Angela Lansbury to receive Sondheim Award Midler announces end date for Las Vegas show Arts, books, more Section Front   Add Arts, books, more headlines to your news reader: