Fashion insiders unfurl the layers of fall collections to find serious clothes

Fashion Week gets serious with less glitz, glam

NEW YORK — There was more serious fashion and less glitzy show at New York Fashion Week, the designer runway previews that begin to shape the trends for fall.

Fewer celebrities filled front rows for previews that ended Thursday, and there were no white-hot parties on the calendar as there had always been a few short seasons ago.

That left nothing for the editors, buyers and stylists who spent eight days watching more than 100 collections to focus on but the clothes. And they were serious clothes at that — lots of black, longer hemlines and menswear-inspired looks.

The serious tone was thrown into starker relief by the death of one of fashion’s consummate showmen, Alexander McQueen. Though New York tends to be more businesslike than the European catwalks favored by McQueen, there was a sense that this week was even more no-nonsense.

In other seasons since the Great Recession began, designers have essentially thrown spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks: Harem pants? Shoulder pads? Bright colors? An ’80s revival?

But in the fall 2010 collections, the down economy no longer seemed the elephant in the room so much as an altered reality. Many designers returned to their heritage looks instead of focusing on the next big thing — perhaps an effort to win back full-price consumers who had been loyal until their wallets were drained in the recession.

“There’s a more modest look to the clothes,” said Cindy Weber Cleary, InStyle’s fashion director. “There’s a shift in attitude. It’s not a downer just because of the economy. The times demand a more elegant presence.”

The fashion industry itself is in “recovery mode,” said Joanna Coles, editor in chief of Marie Claire magazine. “Fashion is aimed at women not girls this season. … It’s not aimed at necessarily an older woman, but one that is more ‘grown up.’”

It’s why there were so many trousers and longer skirts instead of minis on the runway, she said.

Weber Cleary pointed to Marc Jacob’s always-influential collection that put models in romantic, somewhat nostalgic clothes, as well as boldface names Michael Kors, Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein by Francisco Costa, all of whom stuck to classics without too many bells and whistles.

Even those considered to be the up-and-comers — Rag & Bone, Alexander Wang and Rodarte, among them — softened the edges that at first made them famous in favor of sophistication.

“All the flashy, trendy stuff of the last few years feels so wrong. There’s a new sobriety, but the clothes are attractive — they’re luxurious without being ostentatious,” said Weber Cleary.

Well, there were a lot of furs and metallics, too, but those didn’t seem gimmicky — just a way to make the outfits special.

“The customer likes casualwear but wants to feel the luxury,” Tommy Hilfiger said in an interview as he was putting final touches on his Ivy-Leager-goes-to-work collection.

Ken Downing, fashion director for department store Neiman Marcus, thought his customers “will absolutely want to wear” oversized boyfriend coats over the many layered knits, which was another key trend. The fall will be about the mixing and matching of otherwise familiar pieces — a feminine blouse with a tailored pantsuit, or a military jacket with a long skirt, said Downing.

It might take a second or even third look to appreciate the details of the New York collections, said Ariel Foxman, InStyle’s editor, who wanted to reserve judgment of the biggest trends until French and Italian designers were done with their previews in March. Much of the fashion crowd has already moved on to London, which opened its fashion week on Friday with tributes to McQueen, who died in an apparent suicide last week.

“At first glance, these collections seem dark, somber, neutral, but upon closer inspection, you’ll see the intricate detail, the texture, the lame, the layering, the construction,” Foxman said.

Suze Yalof Schwartz, the executive fashion editor of Glamour magazine, dubbed the dominant style “serious with a twist.”

Even if there were more gray dresses and trenchcoats, that doesn’t spell the end of creative fashion, she said. It’s a plus that real women won’t dismiss the catwalk as theater — and might actually pick up some styling tips.

“No one wants to look at a boring gray dress on the runway, but what the designers do is take that wearable gray dress and then put it with heels — that are then covered with a clear bootie,” she said. “How cool is that?”

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