new york fashion week round up

Rachel Comey's was by far my favourite collection for it's sheer wearability and the aesthetic parallel to the sartorial references that have been buzzing about in my head of late. Namely thigh grazing summer shorts (bye bye denim cut-offs!) and little seventies dresses, belted. The kind of outfits that make perfect sense when worn kicking about a flower market on a Sunday; a mixture of suitable hardy with buttoned up (all the way) blouses and overall dresses but with girlish charm thrown in in the form of flirty necklines and dainty prints.

If the sexy, studded, body conscious look was the zietgiest of Summer 2009, then Comey's show symbolises that the first spring of the new decade will favour the 'less is more' mantra. Think preppy but in a tomboyish Brooklyn way over any Upper East Side pearls and twinset stereotype. Brits may think of the 1970's sitcom The Good Life and channel an updated Barbara Good. Otherwise Michelle Williams and Au Revoir Simone are the poster girls and the "keep one half covered" rule shall resume with cheeky hemlines perfectly balanced along with elbow patch cardigans or oversize blouses in hawaiian prints. Instead of the edgy accessories or tough fabrics favoured over the past two seasons, a bike, knapsack or straw basket will do to finish off an outfit.

As biased as I am towards Rachel Comey, she wasn't the only one headed in a more modest direction. In addition to many a boyish nod witnessed on the runways last week in New York blazers still reigned at Charlotte Ronson and Rag and Bone and even Marc Jacobs declared himself sick of "seeing young girls wearing black and studs" (I could kiss his feet for saying this).

Perhaps the most surprising and reassuring evidence of the new mood was Alexander Wang's evolution. The main force behind the trend of all things ripped and studded, he finally proved himself in my eyes as having longevity with his line up of jocky models. Keeping hold of his burgeoning sporty trademark with an American Football theme, Wang opted for a softer colour scheme, swapping his previous love of head to toe gunmetal tones for beige and off-white greys and even a little pastel.

One thing seems to be clear; the 80s revival has finally come to an end. With any luck we can hold off referencing shoulder pads and neons for the foreseeable future. The fact that fashion is in danger of recycling a decade for a longer period of time than it initially existed for is too ironically bittersweet. Though touches of the 1990s have been creeping through over the past couple of seasons, it seems now, at the dawn of a new decade that the minimal silhouettes and simple block colours favoured almost twenty years ago are to be fully embraced. Proof came from the perfectly simple peach creations at Donna Karan and the Preen collection which I thought at some moments was subtely reminiscent of Phoebe Philo at Chloe.

Rodarte's dresses were breathtaking and though I was initally of the view that Kate and Laura Mulleavy could have done more to expand the brand's style, I'm won over by the stunning tie dye and sequin combinations which force me to take back anything I may ever have said about either of the details. A hit with the Fashion editors, I guess that the pair's designs will become editorial favourites and a preferred red carpet choice.

I imagine the desks of Jack and Lazarro at Proenza Schouler to have had stacks of books containing underwater illustrations. At Proenza the hair paid homage to the emerging trend of zany-dye colours and was perfection; though perhaps not in the technical sense with models alternating between irregular dipped ends, in tinges of silvered purple, metallic green or copper. A number of skirt and top combinations were equally distinctive of both electric coloured seacreatures and their inquisitive human scuba investigators. This was in the form of stretchy marine blue tops, almost akin to wetsuit texture (curiously appealing) and the textured skirts which in any other line up could be mistaken for tribal, but here were unmistakably fishy..

Either way, the collection was typically Proenza Schouler in it's shape; a formula of flawless minidresses and foolproof hemlines.The metallic colours were suitably un-bling, instead fresh, youthful -as original as ever especially when injected with the rest of the colour pallete which was darker than your average spring scheme.