New York Fashion Week: Vera Wang's Understated Comfort

Vera Wang, like so many designers this season, is making a case for understatement, using the theme of "film noir" as a starting point for her darkly romantic collection of soft, sculptural, day to night pieces.

Highlights included a black twill jacket with an organza corsage, a white linen voile blouse with a sculptural twist at the shoulder, and a genius charcoal knit jumpsuit with tuxedo stripes.

Bejeweling was at a minimum, which was a change for Wang, reflecting a new, sportier attitude. (Models wore ropes of distressed pearls instead of the bibs of jewels they have had in seasons past, exuding a less polished, more distressed glamour.)

New York Fashion Week: Barbara Tfank's grown-up glamour for the 'Mad Men' set

What's so powerful about L.A. designer Barbara Tfank is she knows what she does -- grown-up glamour with the finest fabrics in the world -- and what she does not do -- trends and in-your-face glitz. And she never wavers.

For years, she has used vintage Bianchini-Ferier fabrics in her collections. And this season, she went one step further, designing her own textiles inspired by Fauvist painter Raoul Dufy.

The peppy florals and moody roses add whimsy to classic ladylike shapes, such as a midnight-blue and emerald rose-print shift with a back panel and a neckline that sits just off the shoulders, and a column gown in a Fauvist black-and-blue floral print with a grosgrain ribbon at the waist.

New York Fashion Week: The Kardashians - Kim, Khloe and Kourtney - unveil their Bebe line

The latest leveraging of the Kardashian sister synergy hit the runway in Manhattan on Tuesday, as the Bebe-Kardashian line debuted at the Style 360 subset of New York Fashion Week. Since this was five long blocks across town from the Bryant Park tents -- the center of the New York Fashion Week universe --the highest wattage celebrity attendee seemed to be the increasingly Amazonian-looking Jenni "J-Woww" Farley of "Jersey Shore" fame, who breezed into the room on glittery legs, wearing a turquoise Ed Hardy T-shirt dress and batting eyelashes the size of small butterflies, causing a Pamplona-like running of the paparazzi. 

New York Fashion Week: JC Obando; great tailoring skills, boring runway

L.A.-based designer Juan Carlos Obando took the idea of razor-sharp tailoring and beat us over the head with it.

Working in a drab palette of sand, gray and black, he showed super skinny worsted wool trousers that were totally spare aside from spiraling seams, and sleeveless belted shift dresses pared down except for a few curve enhancing stitches.

Although he should be applauded for his rigorous technique, this collection needed some eye candy beyond shoe designer George Esquivel's laced boot extensions.

It didn't help that it was all a build-up to a finale of gowns with micro plisse bodices, something we've seen from him many times before.

New York Fashion Week: Zac Posen, Thakoon tire out while Peter Som gets his second wind

With lackluster collections from Jason Wu, Thakoon Panichgul and Zac Posen, I was beginning to worry that New York Fashion Week was experiencing a young designer burnout.

It's easy to see how it could happen, with the pressure to make headlines and reinvent season after season -- and now in the pre-seasons, too.

But not every designer has the boundless imagination to be an Alexander McQueen. (It's possible even McQueen was having trouble keeping up, and that it led to his death.) And not every designer should try.

New York Fashion Week: Diane von Furstenberg Shows How to Live Like a Man, But Dress Like a Woman

Diane von Furstenberg may have had the best inspiration line ever in her show notes: "I always wanted to live a man's life in a woman's body."

What did it mean? A study in contrasts, masculine meets feminine, hard against soft -- a chiffon-rosette-embroidered bolero worn over a double-breasted heather-gray pantsuit, a black-felted wool blazer over a pleated school girl glitter-jacquard skirt, and a bronze-sequin jacket over a red-print chiffon dress.

It added up to lots of the versatile, wear-everywhere pieces that keep women coming back to DVF, including the perennial wrap dress, done for evening in black jersey with ruffled organza cap sleeves.

The designer also excelled at offering pieces with details that looked special for the money, such as a black-felted wool sheath dress and sweater jacket with artful metallic chain mail insets at the bottom, that have already made it onto at least one editor's fall shopping list.

New York Fashion Week: DKNY Remixes the Classics

The classics remixed. That was the takeaway from the fall DKNY line, a compelling mash-up of menswear- inspired equestrian plaids, Bauhaus grids and Deco florals. Schoolgirl pleated skirts came in mixed plaids and checks, and Angora wool coats were oversized and man-tailored, some with contrast leather piping.

Bands of electric blue sequins livened up the camel, gray, burgundy and black sweaters and scarves in geometric collage patterns. And for evening, short dresses shined with metallic patches of beads and sequins.