fashion 2010: Women’s Spring Fashion 2010

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Abaeté | designer: Laura Poretzky | slide show

“underwear-as-outwear was a bit too obvious” (style.com)
“cute . . . but a few pieces, like the knee-length ‘biking’ shorts, didn’t meet the designer’s ready-to-wear aspirations” (WWD)

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Alexander Wang | designer: Alexander Wang | slide show

“had the moment-to-moment quality of young urbanites who buy on Friday to wear on Saturday, and so you have the feeling that the clothes . . . had been tweaked rather than wholly designed” (The New York Times)
“There was an athletic edge to the proceedings, and — with the exception of cropped muscle tees and Swarovski-laden sweatpants — it worked” (style.com)
“Wang’s still as well versed in grungy, street vernacular as ever, just skewing more sporty” (WWD)

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Alexandre Herchcovitch | designer: Alexandre Herchcovitch | slide show

“The show was in parts wearable . . . and outrageous” (style.com)
“Alexandre Herchcovitch spliced together military details with decidedly feminine clothes, sometimes intriguingly . . . and sometimes amusingly” (WWD)

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Anna Sui | designer: Anna Sui | slide show

“This upbeat show was Sui at her best: vivacious in color, but with black and white offering a different perspective to the more predictable pink and orange” (The International Herald Tribune)
“if it didn’t put a smile on your face, you weren’t paying attention” (style.com)
“a festive riff on folky, south of the border fun. Olé!” (WWD)

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Badgley Mischka | designers: Mark Badgley and James Mischka | slide show

“something to celebrate” (style.com)
“a pared-down affair that made for delightful day pieces” (WWD)

Barbara Tfank | designer: Barbara Tfank | slide show

“classic glamour, elegantly updated” (The International Herald Tribune)
“in today’s jeans-and-T-shirt world, being so well turned out and matchy-matchy is about as offbeat as you can get” (style.com)
“typically uptown tea party fare” (WWD)

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BCBG Max Azria | designers: Max and Lubov Azria | slide show

“You could argue that sartorial comfort engenders confidence, which in turn allows a woman to realize her full potential . . . or you could just say that these were some very wearable dresses” (style.com)
“the designer once again crafted a lineup of entirely wearable dresses” (WWD)

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Behnaz Sarafpour | designer: Behnaz Sarafpour | slide show

“a younger spin on dresses for gossip-girls-on-the-town who might not want to wear the same Oscar frock as mother” (style.com)
“These were lawn party clothes and a breath of fresh air after all those rompers and jumpsuits” (WWD)

Benjamin Cho | designer: Benjamin Cho | slide show

“The craftiness that has become a signature of sorts . . . swung both ways” (style.com)
“[Cho's] slapdash spring lineup . . . felt like a step backward” (WWD)

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Betsey Johnson | designer: Betsey Johnson | slide show

“had a seemingly tyke-friendly theme of pirates-meets-Peter Pan” (style.com)
“It’s questionable how many of these pieces . . . will actually make it to retail, but arrrgh, it was just plain fun” (WWD)

Boy by Band of Outsiders | designer: Scott Sternberg | slide show

“more ambitious options than [Sternberg's] usual riffs on the tomboy-schoolgirl look” (style.com)
“Sternberg, whose goal is ‘cool, easy dressing,’ is on to something: His Boy clothes are on the chic side of preppy” (WWD)

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Brian Reyes | designer: Brian Reyes | slide show

“very cute” (The New York Times)
“Reyes hit the mark in a strong collection inspired by the geologically extreme landscapes of Death Valley, Arizona, and Ethiopia” (style.com)
“Sometimes, a girl just wants to dress polished and pretty — it’s as simple as that. And come spring, she’ll have plenty to pull from Brian Reyes’s lineup” (WWD)

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Calvin Klein | designer: Francisco Costa | slide show

“This concept of ‘collapsible’ clothes or ‘pop-up’ fashion was original and architectural, bringing an uncompromisingly modern look to a wardrobe of simple styles” (The International Herald Tribune)
“[a] strange and exuberant collection” (The New York Times)
“Too often . . . the clothes looked boxy and square — a look that’s hard to pull off if you’re not a curveless 16-year-old” (style.com)
“infused futuristic edge (literally and figuratively) with unlikely serenity” (WWD)

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Carlos Miele | designer: Carlos Miele | slide show

“[hit] perfect pitch” (The International Herald Tribune)
“a celebration of all things Brazilian” (style.com)
“Carlos Miele presented his signature spice” (WWD)

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Carolina Herrera | designer: Carolina Hererra | slide show

“all seemed aimed at that familiar totem: the red carpet” (The International Herald Tribune)
“effectively combined masculine tailoring . . . and feminine flounces” (The New York Times)
“of the ‘If you’ve got it, flaunt it’ variety” (style.com)
“an unabashedly romantic lineup” (WWD)

Catherine Holstein | designer: Catherine Holstein | slide show

“a peppy up-and-comer who made some voluminous little dresses that looked to have bathroom tiles attached as sequins” (The New York Times)
“well framed by stylish-yet-relaxed touches” (WWD)

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Chado Ralph Rucci | designer: Ralph Rucci | slide show

“a master class in dressmaking” (The International Herald Tribune)
“both modern and, yes, kind of sexy” (style.com)
“had all the markings of that labor-intensive approach, but now delivered with a lighter, some might say younger, hand” (WWD)

Chris Benz | designer: Chris Benz | slide show

“crowd-pleasing” (style.com)
“an ’80s theme . . . leapt forward to the ’90s. . . . The best pieces, though, didn’t reference any singular moment” (WWD)

Costello Tagliapietra | designers: Jerffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra | slide show

“They might be fashion’s favorite cuddly, flannel-wearing bears, but this spring Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra showed some claw.” (style.com)
“pretty, if one-note” (WWD)

Cynthia Rowley | designer: Cynthia Rowley | slide show

“sleek and chic” (style.com)
“sporty, graphic and clean” (WWD)

Cynthia Steffe | designer: Shaun Kearney | slide show

“Kearney’s nicely balanced inaugural collection was a worthy first” (style.com)
“Kearney tempered the flounciness with a sporty motif” (WWD)

Daughters by Obedient Sons | designers: Swaim and Christina Hutson | slide show

“the newly feminine looks were quite beautiful” (style.com)
“typically preppy-cool wares” (WWD)

Dennis Basso | designer: Dennis Basso | slide show

“a few too many flounces” (style.com)
“Dennis Basso’s floaty printed and ombré chiffon dresses have gotten prettier” (WWD)

Derek Lam | designer: Derek Lam | slide show

“crisp-looking in a YSL way” (The New York Times)
“[Lam] failed to generate enough heat to keep his crowd interested” (style.com)
“the collection reflected a too-serene mood underscored by a subdued palette of pumices and nudes” (WWD)

Diane Von Furstenberg | designer: Diane von Furstenberg | slide show

“the sort of look that is not so much optimistic as it is at a remove from discussions of bad health care systems and the volatile stock market” (The New York Times)
“The overall effect was one of unbridled optimism” (style.com)
“a spring parade of diaphanously turned-out power bohemians” (WWD)

Diesel | designer: Wilbert Das | slide show

“the clothes looked as modern as the undulating sound waves projected on the backdrop” (The International Herald Tribune)
“quality jeans in unique washes and sportswear that cop a bit of ‘tude” (style.com)
“worked the cool side of nostalgic” (WWD)

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DKNY | designer: Donna Karan | slide show

“all the mix-and-match soon became fashion mayhem, with too many ideas on display” (style.com)
“a lineup that looked slick, polished and rooted firmly in the ’80s” (WWD)

Donna Karan Collection | designer: Donna Karan | slide show

“the designer just goes her own drapey, droopy way” (The International Herald Tribune)
“a slouchy, sexy and provocative lineup” (style.com)
“Liquid assets — Donna Karan has plenty of those and wants to share them with her customers” (WWD)

Doo.Ri | designer: Doo-Ri Chung | slide show

“Chung let the light in for spring” (style.com)
“After last season’s more structural outing, Doo-Ri Chung returned to her Jersey-girl roots” (WWD)

Elie Tahari | designer: Elie Tahari | slide show

“felt rather more like resort than spring” (style.com)
“Between the large-scale tropical and animal prints — leopard, meow — there was plenty of sizzle to heat up the poolside ’70s vibe” (WWD)

Elise Overland | designer: Elise Overland | slide show

“Overland lightened up for spring, tempering her goth/punk sensibilities. . . . But her devotees need not fret” (style.com)
“[a] collection of girlish cocktail dresses” (WWD)

Erin Fetherston | designer: Erin Fetherston | slide show

“shimmered like sunlight across the Seine” (style.com)
“Fetherston’s head was stuck in the clouds for spring” (WWD)

Gap | designer: Patrick Robinson | slide show

“something that’s never before seen the inside of a Gap store” (style.com)
“Robinson stressed sophistication of the laid-back sort for his superfresh lineup” (WWD)

G-Star | designer: Pierre Morisset | slide show

“serious-fun streetwear” (style.com)
“G-Star’s hard-edged dark denim was there in spades” (WWD)

Halston | designers: team | slide show

“A question of identity is the problem for Halston, which . . . has got to speak to a generation that does not know the sex- and drug-fueled world of Studio 54 and make the clothes seem relevant to the modern era” (The International Herald Tribune)
“rather disappointing to see the straight-from-the-archives reproductions that the nameless Halston design team trotted out” (style.com)
“the show was more infield hit than home run” (WWD)

Hanii Y | designer: Hanii Yoon | slide show

“a sporty but refined collection” (style.com)
“Nordic white nights translated into Hanii Y’s beautiful blurry florals and layers of organza and chiffon” (WWD)

Helmut Lang | designer: Nicole Colovos | slide show

“a cohesive collection with enough casual cool to appeal to those who loved Lang back in the day” (style.com)
“Nature versus city with a casual cool undercurrent” (WWD)

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Hervé Léger by Max Azria | designers: Max and Lubov Azria | slide show

“Sex on heels is probably an accurate description of any Hervé Léger show. . . . But this season’s was even sexier” (style.com)
“amusing at the least and chic at best” (WWD)

Isaac Mizrahi | designer: Isaac Mizrahi | slide show

“The show was endearing in its energy, although there were some clunky dresses heavy with paillettes and others that looked like Snow White dressing for a 1950s prom” (The International Herald Tribune)
“The clothes Isaac Mizrahi showed . . . wouldn’t spark appreciation or desire except among connoisseurs or people familiar with his history and love of drama” (The New York Times)
“Mizrahi captured his audience in an enchanting, gossamer web” (style.com)
“dared to juice up familiar shapes with asymmetric flourish” (WWD)

J. Mendel | designer: Gilles Mendel | slide show

“proved . . . it’s not a rarified hothouse atmosphere that draws customers to J. Mendel dresses or jackets but the skillful hands that make them” (style.com)
“Gilles Mendel may not be reinventing the evening-wear wheel, but he consistently crafts gorgeous dresses” (WWD)

Jenni Kayne | designer: Jenni Kayne | slide show

“the mostly effortless pieces [Kayne] showed should be welcome in the closet of any unfettered young woman with time on her hands to devote to the pursuit of chic” (style.com)
“Recently put on bed rest, the eight-months’ pregnant Kayne clearly wanted to take it easy” (WWD)

Jeremy Laing | designer Jeremy Laing | slide show

“day looks with a clean, geometric appeal . . . were proof that, all in all, Laing’s shape-based construction served him well” (style.com)
“a heck of a good ride” (WWD)

Jill Stuart | designer: Jill Stuart | slide show

“Jill Stuart played to her girlish base for spring with a collection of floaty dresses that jetéd straight from the world of the ballerina” (style.com)
“There was little innovation” (WWD)

Jonathan Saunders | designer: Jonathan Saunders | slide show

“Saunders . . . is an exception among young designers — or, anyway, he belongs to the school that doesn’t think it hurts to properly make a seam and actually propose something thoughtful as well as eye-catching” (The New York Times)
“Saunders is clearly pushing himself as a designer, but these [dresses] looked as if they came to him easily, and for that reason alone they stood out” (style.com)
“played like a parade of pretty, playful majorettes” (WWD)

Juan Carlos Obando | designer: Juan Carlos Obando | slide show

“Even today, it’s the rare designer who can stand backstage, as Juan Carlos Obando did . . . and state — with justifiable pride — ‘Every pattern, every stitch is my own’” (style.com)
“Obando has waited over four years to stage a formal New York show, but it appeared well worth the wait” (WWD)

Kai Kühne | designer: Kai Kühne | slide show

“casting the mannequins as automatons somewhat dehumanized the clothes, which — despite their precise geometry — were molded to the body in celebration of the natural female form” (style.com)
“a good edit wouldn’t have hurt” (WWD)

Karen Walker | designer: Karen Walker | slide show

“provided a touch of glam, via chic L.N.D.s (little navy dresses, act like you know)” (style.com)
“a men’s-wear bent paired with feminine favorites . . . in a well-rounded lineup” (WWD)

Koi Suwannagate | designer: Koi Suwannagate | slide show

“sheer and floaty, pleasantly summery forms” (style.com)
“[a] positively dreamy and poetic lineup” (WWD)

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Lacoste | designer: Christophe Lemaire | slide show

“made a clear and bold visual statement” (style.com)
“an irreverent riff on the famous house logo” (WWD)

Lela Rose | designer: Lela Rose | slide show

“We’d say Rose is surviving the kill-or-be-killed fashion game just fine” (style.com)
“Dressed-up sporty? Certainly. And still hip enough to be perfect for those young ladies who lunch in the meatpacking district” (WWD)

Luca Luca | designer: Raul Melgoza | slide show

“Strange, space-age pod shoes gave the girls some trouble . . . and a few looks fell on the wrong end of the sci-fi spectrum” (style.com)
“Looks like Raul Melgoza needs a little time to find his footing at Luca Luca” (WWD)

Lutz & Patmos | designers: Tina Lutz and Marcia Patmos | slide show

“‘Seasonless’ is a term that could be applied both to the clothes and to the house’s celebrity guest designer of the moment: Jane Birkin” (style.com)
“a relaxed yet feminine lineup” (WWD)

L’Wren Scott | designer: L’Wren Scott | slide show

“outfits with a soupçon of seduction” (The International Herald Tribune)
“offered a great sense of her familiar drama . . . but the striking thing about her dresses was the intimacy and the refinement of the details” (The New York Times)
“Mick’s verdict: ‘I loved it.’ Enough said” (style.com)
“L’Wren Scott puts on a great show, replete with a lovely lunch and lots of star power. . . . This time it was more about the clothes than ever, with a real point of view (WWD)

Malandrino | designer: Catherine Malandrino | slide show

“Malandrino stayed true to her crafty core. with loads of tactile details for the eye to drink in” (style.com)
“An alluring lineup” (WWD)

Malo | designer: Alessandro Dell’Acqua | slide show

“boudoir sensuality, although cleverly achieved, seemed inappropriate to Malo, and slightly at odds with the pristine freshness of essential American style” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Dell’Acqua’s collection served up sophisticated, trend-aware clothes on the half shell, as it were” (style.com)
“Dell’Acqua proved he’s more than capable of bringing sexy back — or putting sexy in — to knitwear” (WWD)

Marc by Marc Jacobs | designer: Marc Jacobs | slide show

“a collection that was both commercial and cool” (The International Herald Tribune)
“More so than usual, [Jacobs's] little-sister line provided a compelling sort of coda” (style.com)
“cool girls with a sweet side . . . [will] be in undone heaven” (WWD)

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Marchesa | designer: Georgina Chapman | slide show

“worn by models who posed like goddess statues, the dresses seemed more like stage costumes than flesh-and-blood wear” (The International Herald Tribune)
“like some kind of delicious trifle, soaked in wit” (The New York Times)
“a best-dressed list from start to finish” (style.com)
“high-wattage numbers the A-list ought to start laying claim to now” (WWD)

Marc Jacobs | designer: Marc Jacobs | slide show

“offered images of the historic nobility of American women — yet made the graceful and colorful clothes, luminous with glowing appliqués, seem enticingly modern” (The International Herald Tribune)
“the mix of gingham tops and apronlike tunics recalled not merely the common threads of working women, black or white, but also their drift through the dirty ’30s from country to city” (The New York Times)
“in [Jacobs's] hands even a thing like a farm-girl apron gets tweaked and reinterpreted until, impossibly, it becomes the very definition of contemporary chic” (style.com)
“plaids, tweeds, orientalia, macramé, leather . . . clashed and coexisted in the most spectacular example of fabric wizardry one can recall this side of couture” (WWD)

Matthew Williamson | designer: Matthew Williamson | slide show

“all very familiar stuff, well executed” (The International Herald Tribune)
“With bright colors and bold prints on the checklist for retailers (those items’ cheery optimism makes them reliable sellers in a depressed economy), Williamson is in step for spring.” (style.com)
“This was Williamson flash with none of the fuss.” (WWD)

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MaxAzria | designers: Max and Lubov Azria | slide show

“Simply put: Max went minimal for spring.” (style.com)
“the starlet set . . . likely saw plenty to keep them covered for spring parties” (WWD)

Michael Kors | designer: Michael Kors | slide show

“certainly an A-plus collection, offering sportswear values that were once the identity of American fashion” (The International Herald Tribune)
“a smart spring collection that probably saved a few retail chiefs from watching their profits further erode” (The New York Times)
“Only the most hardened cynics in the crowd left feeling less than optimistic” (style.com)
“Good vibrations, as the soundtrack heralded again and again? Absolutely” (WWD)

Milly | designer: Michelle Smith | slide show

“overall there wasn’t much that felt fresh” (style.com)
“Michelle Smith drifted from her ’50s aesthetic and thought more bohemian safari, a theme that worked well” (WWD)

Miss Sixty | designer: Wichy Hassan | slide show

“Realism is not what the customer craves — see the success of Gossip Girl for proof. . . . The best thing to do with these graphic tees, halter jumpsuits and tiny rompers is to embrace the kitsch.” (style.com)
“When it comes to streetwear, it really is all about the mix, and Wichy Hassan hit it just right” (WWD)

Monique Lhuillier | designer: Monique Lhuillier | slide show

“Lhuillier may not have a vast, creative imagination, but she executes her clothes with charm and chic” (The International Herald Tribune)
“properly chic they were, coming down the sisal runway” (style.com)
“Monique Lhuillier knows how to make a lady look sexy” (WWD)

Naeem Khan | designer: Naeem Khan | slide show

“going over the top also requires a deft hand — which some of Khan’s pieces lacked” (style.com)
“rich embellishments on fairly simple, familiar shapes” (WWD)

Nanette Lepore | designer: Nanette Lepore | slide show

“‘Save the Garment Center’ was splashed across the set backdrop. . . . It gave some edge to an otherwise delicate collection” (style.com)
“[a] playful lineup” (WWD)

Narciso Rodriguez | designer: Narciso Rodriguez | slide show

“The overlong show was in need of editing, but its substance was fine: precise in cut and patterns” (The International Herald Tribune)
“The collection was as fresh looking as it was varied” (The New York Times)
“this season New York’s most rigorous designer really amped up the edginess with, yes, ninja-star prints and ninja-star bugle-bead embroidery” (style.com)
“[Rodriguez's] collection was chock-full of visual stimuli that were at once rigorous and controlled, but dynamic nonetheless” (WWD)

Nicole Miller | designer: Nicole Miller | slideshow

“To avoid getting carried away with a theme and a total prints-travaganza, Miller grounded the magical with the practical” (style.com)
“Miller made appealing use of the island’s spirit” (WWD)

Ohne Titel | designers: Alexa Adams and Flora Gill | slide show

“The American synchronized swimming team, lampooned for their ensembles, should feel a sense of validation” (The New York Times)
“Alexa Adams and Flora Gill returned to the airiness of the debut collection that made fashion sit up and take notice a year ago” (style.com)
“plenty of chic transparent layers . . . added a pretty depth” (WWD)

Organic by John Patrick | designer: John Patrick | slide show

“‘I’m not making fashion,’ Patrick asserted before the show. ‘I’m just making clothes.’ Well, yes, but — luckily for him (and his workers) — this isn’t actually Oklahoma, and a New York audience knows fashion when it sees it” (style.com)
“John Patrick’s prairie-chic lineup . . . worked a sophisticated but playful vibe” (WWD)

Oscar de la Renta | designer: Oscar de la Renta | slide show

“The designer’s mastery of his craft made even the grandest evening clothes look light and easy” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Mr. de la Renta’s clothes looked gorgeous” (The New York Times)
“Everything was perfectly beautiful, maybe a bit too much so” (style.com)
“de la Renta dresses women who enjoy looking like ladies. . . . This spring, they’ll be all atwitter over the wealth of beautiful options at the ready” (WWD)

Peter Som | designer: Peter Som | slide show

“this well-thought-out show was never vulgar and expressed a sporty freedom of a modern woman” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Though Som described this as a ’sexier’ season than any he’s done before, he is still a romantic at heart” (style.com)
“suggested the designer is casting a net beyond his uptown fan base” (WWD)

Phi | designer: Andreas Melbostad | slide show

“Phi has experimented alternately with lingerie and aggressive tailoring. This season, the balance between the two was at its most harmonious” (style.com)
“No longer strictly editorial, these are clothes the urban everywoman can wear” (WWD)

3.1 Phillip Lim | designer: Phillip Lim | slide show

“Zippers rippling as decorative embellishment seemed tricksy, but otherwise the designer’s skill in this 3.1 Phillip Lim line was to add just a little fantasy to simple clothes” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Lim’s version of Direction for the Masses . . . was a bit overdone” (style.com)
“Flamenco, bullfighting, the Moors, Eva Perón, Zorro . . . Phillip Lim worked all of these points deftly, making for a beautifully spirited affair” (WWD)

Philosophy | designer: Alberta Ferretti | slide show

“The hippie de luxe spirit that Italian companies can express in exceptional fabrics was part of a story that also included more streamlined sportswear” (The International Herald Tribune)
“proved Philosophy can, indeed, be just as right for the kind of customer who gets collared on the sidewalk by street-style photographers as they are for the kind of customer who gets shot by Patrick McMullan” (style.com)
“alluring and oh-so-utilitarian chic” (WWD)

Ports 1961 | designer: Tia Cibani | slide show

“It was easy to forget, if only for a minute, that we were in Midtown Manhattan” (style.com)
“the misses far outweighed the hits” (WWD)

Preen | designers: Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi | slide show

“Thornton and Bregazzi didn’t exactly break new ground here, but the sexy clothes should go a ways in raising the London designers’ profile stateside” (style.com)
“looks were overwrought” (WWD)

Proenza Schouler | designers: Jack McCullough and Lazaro Hernandez | slide show

“The design duo at Proenza Schouler moved from city smart to tough workwear, and it made for a fine transition” (The International Herald Tribune)
“you sometimes think [McCullough and Hernandez] are not looking as hard at things as they might, asking themselves: ‘Is this good enough?’ ” (The New York Times)
“at times the wearability of the clothes clearly suffered for all the high concepts” (style.com)
“one came away with the sense that, despite its gutsy motif, this was not the most confidently rendered of collections” (WWD)

Rachel Comey | designer: Rachel Comey | slide show

“Backstage, the queen of quirk, Parker Posey declared the collection ‘gorgeous’ — and, for a carefree kind of downtown girl, it was” (style.com)
“Comey’s real strength is her prints and patterns . . . both whimsical . . . and versatile” (WWD)

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Rachel Roy | designer: Rachel Roy | slide show

“[Roy] wanted to mine the territory between elegance and ease. Sometimes the balance felt forced” (style.com)
“Inspiration: ‘An American in Paris’ by way of Africa. If it sounds a little YSL . . . Roy made it her own, and adorable, at that.” (WWD)

Rag & Bone | designers: David Neville and Marcus Wainwright | slide show

“tough and rough around the edges” (style.com)
“David Neville and Marcus Wainwright worked a British working-class theme that felt repetitive and at times lacked personality” (WWD)

Ralph Lauren | designer: Ralph Lauren | slide show

“a predictable colonial safari route . . . through a more exotic world of a gilded serpent belt and a snake charmer’s turban” (The International Herald Tribune)
“terrifically adventurous — Indiana Jones in gold sequins” (The New York Times)
“Kudos to Lauren for addressing the diversity issue on the runways, and for a collection well done” (style.com)
“a beautiful collection . . . let’s hear it for tricky pants that worked” (WWD)

Rebecca Taylor | designer: Rebecca Taylor | slide show

“the dizzying array of patterns and textures lacked cohesion” (style.com)
“think Haight-Ashbury, but saccharine” (WWD)

Reem Acra | designer: Reem Acra | slide show

“Reem Acra wove a tale that began in the attic of a royal castle, the kind of magically cobwebbed place where one might chance upon a forgotten stash of silks and gems” (style.com)
“there was nothing basic about the ways [Acra] worked long or short versions of each [silhouette]” (WWD)

Réyes | designer: José Ramón Réyes | slide show

“Most of [Réyes's] new offerings . . . could more aptly be described as challenging” (style.com)

Richard Chai | designer: Richard Chai | slide show

“surface interest gave a slightly kooky look to clothes that were basically just simple dresses, coats and pants” (The International Herald Tribune)
“[Chai] is working to make his clothes more special, and not merely expensive” (The New York Times)
“chic and ethereal and brimming with colorful prints” (style.com)
“expertly straddled the line between boyish and girly” (WWD)

Rock & Republic | designer: Michael Ball | slide show

“There’s something fun about watching the likes of Chanel Iman, Freja Beha Erichsen and Hye Park get abashedly sexed up and stomp down the runway in big hair and even more towering stilettos.” (style.com)
“Rock & Republic’s black-and-white affair missed the mark in a series of Ice Capades-worthy frocks” (WWD)

Rodarte | designers: Kate and Laura Mulleavy | slide show

“in practical, down-to-earth New York Fashion Week, it is a relief to see designers bringing something from a wellspring of inspiration, rather than just making regular clothes” (The International Herald Tribune)
“the Mulleavys didn’t seem to have a woman in mind when they put together these clothes, as they plainly did when they first showed their lovely, broken-down knits” (The New York Times)
“Drama and intellectual content, along with an otherwordly loveliness, may always be the Rodarte thing, but more down-to-earth-wearable pieces would be welcome” (style.com)
“the sisters’ desire to rein their out-there reveries into something wearable took them to the tough side of romance, and they made it a beautiful, provocative trip” (WWD)

Ruffian | designers: Claude Morais and Brian Wolk | slide show

“some of the . . . pieces looked a bit costumey, as if the models were playing dress-up in their grandmothers’ closets” (style.com)
“If Pocahontas were one of Charlie’s Angels, she would have enjoyed the hippie-chic patchwork denim and hot pants” (WWD)

Sabyasachi | designer: Sabyasachi Mukherjee | slide show

“the barely decent tunic lengths and the Sarah Palin-style glasses and hairdos looked like trying too hard” (The International Herald Tribune)
“full of covetable separates many with exquisite hand embroideries, quilting, and beading that could only be done in India but have true global appeal” (style.com)
“terrific sportswear, breezy and with a whiff of geeky librarian chic” (WWD)

Shipley & Halmos | designers: Sam Shipley and Jeff Halmos | slide show

“aside from the designers’ stated guiding principle of looks that could slip seamlessly from day to night . . . it was difficult to pull out an exact direction that these clothes were headed in” (style.com)
“fussy stuff . . . felt like an afterthought compared with the casual-cool separates (and great men’s wear) for which [Shipley and Halmos are] known” (WWD)

Sophie Théallet | designer: Sophie Théallet | slide show

“a designer with a serious French hand” (The New York Times)
“Wearability seems to come naturally to Théallet . . . and it was the nonchalence of the clothes that impressed the most” (style.com)
“light, charming touch” (WWD)

Stærk | designer: Camilla Stærk | slide show

“a stark, moody mélange of mostly leather and silk” (style.com)
“Staerk designs for a strong woman, but the bevy of her signature black leathers . . . felt a bit heavy for spring” (WWD)

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Sue Stemp | designer: Sue Stemp | slide show

“Call it Mademoiselle X.” (style.com)
“Party girls won’t be disappointed” (WWD)

Thakoon | designer: Thakoon Panichgul | slide show

“With an echo chamber of ideas from Lanvin et al., this collection seemed like it was trying too hard” (The International Herald Tribune)
“a sense of transparency to the clothes. . . . That’s a nice contrast for a designer who had built his reputation with sweetness” (The New York Times)
“Panichgul delivered a number of options for dyed-in-the-wool Thakoon-ocrats” (style.com)
“Between scoring an enviable product placement — Michelle Obama, floral dress, D.N.C. — and his stunning spring collection, Thakoon Panichgul is on a roll” (WWD)

Threeasfour | designers: Gabriel Asfour, Angela Donhauser and Adi Gil | slide show

“freshness came in the form of E8 prints (remember Spirographs? These look like Spirographs on speed)” (style.com)
“the designers worked the E8 esoterica . . . for a polished and cohesive collection” (WWD)

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Tibi | designer: Amy Smilovic | slide show

“prov[ed] that even in an Asian-inspired show, mandarin collars need not be included” (style.com)
“at its best in pieces that mixed Far Eastern structure with the more relaxed sensibility of American sportswear” (WWD)

Tommy Hilfiger | designer: Tommy Hilfiger | slide show

“the identity of the Tommy Hilfiger brand has become more sophisticated” (The International Herald Tribune)
“The mature vision might seem strange for someone formerly obsessed with youth culture, but with developments like a Fifth Avenue flagship in the works, Hilfiger seems to be settling nicely into the new space he’s carved out for himself” (style.com)
“clean, straightforward sportswear that should appeal to the kind of sophisticate Hilfiger is courting” (WWD)

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Tory Burch | designer: Tory Burch | slide show

“But how does Tory really make her profits grow? With fab accessories, of course” (style.com)
“full of looks appropriate for the high school girl, her mother and grandmother” (WWD)

Tracy Reese | designer: Tracy Reese | slide show

“a tactile collection in an Eden-worthy palette” (style.com)
“Reese . . . knows how to deliver pretty dresses” (WWD)

Trovata | designer: John Whitledge | slide show

“Trovata will probably always remain California-casual, but it was good to see the brand pushed forward another notch” (style.com)
“Preppy with a distinctly nautical edge . . . struck just the right note between trendy and wearable” (WWD)

TSE | designers: Dushane Noble, Tom Scott and Julian Louie | slide show

“Although the cashmere house undeniably in the grips of an identity crisis, the models paraded with confidence” (style.com)
“cool and clean” (WWD)

Tuleh | designer: Bryan Bradley | slide show

“surviving a decade is no small achievement. And the collection [Bradley] showed . . . was a living demonstration of how he did it. In a word, consistency” (style.com)
“Not too many surprises here, but nevertheless, Bradley knows what his buyers want” (WWD)

United Bamboo | designers: Thuy Pham and Miho Aoki | slide show

“let in the light” (style.com)
“Thuy Pham and Miho Aoki took their preppy chic to the beach” (WWD)

Vena Cava | designers: Lisa Mayock and Sophie Buhai | slide show

“Kitschy, sure, but it’s just the kind of irreverent detail we’ve come to expect (and love) from these two” (style.com)
“The designers . . . seemed to be offering urban princess-warrior clothes for their usually delicate fans” (WWD)

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Vera Wang | designer: Vera Wang | slide show

“Vera Wang’s style often seems conceptual to a fault. But this season her interest in the French artist Niki de Saint Phalle created a framework of geometry” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Vera Wang has taste but not a unique sensibility. . . . She occupies with a handful of other designers that minimalist halfway house between tailoring and draping” (The New York Times)
“there was newness here . . . but still plenty that should please the designer’s loyalists, who like their Vera just the way it is, thank you very much” (style.com)
“played like a gentle dream” (WWD)

Vera Wang Lavender Label | designer: Vera Wang | slide show

“a sophisticated take on street urchin style” (style.com)
“a delightful mix with a million layering possibilities” (WWD)

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Vivienne Tam | designer: Vivienne Tam | slide show

“‘Every woman loves peonies,’ Tam declared before her show, and she wrote her love letter in prints, appliqués and cutouts evoking the bloom’s lush beauty” (style.com)
“Tam’s usual parade of dresses had a few surprises this time” (WWD)

VPL | designer: Victoria Bartlett | slide show

“‘Velocity’ was the title of Victoria Bartlett’s show — and the collection did indeed show that she’s speeding in the right direction” (style.com)
“a chic paratrooper aesthetic” (WWD)

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Wlliam Rast | designers: Justin Timberlake and Trace Ayala | slide show

“New York, meet the William Rast girl. She’s tough and tomboyish, but also dangerous and sexy.” (style.com)
“trendied-up redneck chic” (WWD)

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Y-3 | designer: Yohiji Yamamoto | slide show

“hit its target with its graphic play on the famous Adidas stripes for both sexes” (The International Herald Tribune)
“mix[ed] French tradition with American insanity” (style.com)
“a sign that the sportier side of [Yamamoto's] sportswear is back” (WWD)

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Yigal Azrouël | designer: Yigal Azrouël | slide show

“The real flow didn’t come from the cascades and ruffles but from the unpretentious ease of [Azrouël's] singular brand of wash-and-wear” (style.com)
“drab sack dresses and tricky high-waisted pants . . . might tickle the extremely hip, [but they] will likely leave those who don’t get it feeling hopelessly uncool” (WWD)

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Zac Posen | designer: Zac Posen | slide show

“There is something about Posen’s work that activates desire” (The International Herald Tribune)
“trashy and fun, the models made up into unrecognizable imitations of Britney” (The New York Times)
“aimed at that other kind of 9-to-5er: the type who makes a business of party hopping” (style.com)
“a charming siren-meets-schoolgirl vibe” (WWD)

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Zero Maria Cornejo | designer: Maria Cornejo | slide show

“An accomplished designer, Ms. Cornejo seems to flee from the idea of fashion. Or maybe she just knows where to draw the line between too much and not enough” (The New York Times)
“a riot of layered patterns and textures reined into cohesion” (style.com)
“a ‘jangling mix of patterns and textures’” (WWD)

A. F. Vandevorst | designers: An Vandevorst and Filip Ariclox | slide show

“The entire show had a sexy schoolgirl look about it” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Most . . . won’t play outside the bedroom” (style.com)
“Delightful variations on the white shirt, lingerie-inspired ensembles and granny fabrics in Tropicana shades tumbled together” (WWD)

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Akris | designer: Albert Kriemier | slide show

the show really caught air with its final group of long gowns” (The International Herald Tribune)
“The overall effect . . . was light and unfussy” (style.com)

Agnès b | designer: Agnès Trouble | slide show

“tempered rock ‘n’ roll staples” (WWD)

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Alexander McQueen | designer: Alexander McQueen | slide show

“The rumble from the jungle that has been echoing through the international collections was given meaning by Alexander McQueen” (The International Herald Tribune)
“All the dress and jacket shapes were within the realm of the imagination . . . and then you had the particular flavor of the engineered prints” (The New York Times)
“McQueen’s couture sensibilities are breathtaking in close-up” (style.com)
“McQueen may have used this show to rage against machines, but these were engineered marvels that required a little technology to caress the girls’ bodies so ergonomically” (WWD)

Andrew Gn | designer: Andrew Gn | slide show

“a collection that was rich, rich, rich” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Gn doesn’t specialize in understatement, but there was some to be found, if you were looking” (style.com)
“Recession talk and money woes, be damned. . . . Gn saw fit to launch an Atelier label of couture-level clothes for spring.” (WWD)

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Ann Demeulemeester | designer: Ann Demeulemeester | slide show

“This was a playful Demeulemeester in fine form” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Autumn or spring, an Ann Demeulemeester show can be a gloomy ordeal. . . . So it was a pleasure to see Ms. Demeulemeester make such imaginative use of standard white cotton” (The New York Times)
“hitting upon one of the season’s recurring themes . . . was less a case of Demeulemeester chasing trends than it was a happy coincidence” (style.com)
“Blend[ed] simplicity and complexity” (WWD)

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Anne Valérie Hash | designer: Anne Valérie Hash | slide show

“a summer collection filled with draped and pleated designs that were easy on the eye” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Anne Valérie Hash’s greatest strength [has] always been a feminine way with draping. . . . Apparently, she’s also adopted the Greeks’ laissez-faire attitude toward nudity” (style.com)
“a slightly sci-fi feel in the prettiest, most romantic way, of course” (WWD)

Antonio Berardi | designer: Antonio Berardi | slide show

“Berardi addressed the Catholic madonna-whore complex full-on” (style.com)
“this season [Berardi] curbed his enthusiasm” (WWD)

Balenciega | designer: Nicolas Ghesquière | slide show

“light, the eerie colors cast on shimmering dresses, and lightness, as in fluidly draped jerseys, made an extraordinary, otherworldly impact” (The International Herald Tribune)
“You have to admire Mr. Ghesquiere’s research and interest in new techniques. . . . It was hard, though, to react to these clothes purely on a gut level. (’I love them — I want to wear them’)” (The New York Times)
“There’s nothing remotely simple . . . about the complex, futuristic synthesis of line, cut and glinting surfaces that played out on [Ghesquière's] runway” (style.com)
“Uncertain about the future? Well, Nicolas Ghesquière isn’t. Would that the Bailout Brigade in Washington could chart a course toward his turf, a futuristic encampment that doesn’t know from indecision or lack of liquidity” (WWD)

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Balmain | designer: Christophe Decarnin | slide show

“sparkling show . . . of hard chic with Grecian drapes” (The International Herald Tribune)
“If your visual references are MTV and rock album covers, you will understand, if not appreciate, Christophe Decarnin’s Balmain” (The New York Times)
“It’s the kind of shameless, pop-bedazzled energy that won Gianni Versace a reputation for tackiness in the high ’80s, but also took him to the top. In other words, yes, it’s a cliché, but so well done only a true miserablist could fail to smile” (style.com)
“Decarnin’s obviously a designer for rich girls who just want to have fun” (WWD)

Bruno Pieters | designer: Bruno Pieters | slide show

“a certain precise tailoring — narrow and sharp as a razor blade” (style.com)
“Paying homage to Pierre Cardin, Bruno Pieters’s geometric shapes . . . spotlighted precision cutting, if straying a little too far from the female form” (WWD)

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Celine | designer: Ivana Omazic | slide show

“So subtle were the ethnic touches that they didn’t overshadow the collection” (The International Herald Tribune)
“looked like it could’ve come from a tribe called BoBo . . . as in ‘bourgeois bohemian’” (style.com)
“Omazic didn’t leave with a bang” (WWD)

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Chanel | designer: Karl Lagerfeld | slide show

“Lagerfeld made a smart move in bringing Chanel back to its luxurious ‘basics’ ” (The International Herald Tribune)
As often as Karl Lagerfeld used to be chided by some of his peers for being a mercenary and not owning a house of his own . . . it’s interesting how well he understands Chanel” (The New York Times)
“a charming, expensive shot of celebratory fun rolled out with supreme confidence” (style.com)
“froth so carefree one might think Lagerfeld’s house immune from the woes of the world. Which of course, it’s not. But it’s as close as it gets” (WWD)

Cher Michel Klein | designer: Michel Klein | slide show

“had a little something for every woman, no matter what her style” (The International Herald Tribune)
“the collection lacked a touch of fraicheur” (WWD)

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Chloé | designer: Hannah MacGibbon | slide show

“what may have been amusing in an earlier girly era looks indulgent in the current crisis” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Chloé’s new designer, Hannah MacGibbon, made a fair start” (The New York Times)
“had editors scribbling ticks and stars in their notebooks” (style.com)
“a fun, upbeat and ’70s-’80s attitude” (WWD)

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Christian Dior | designer: John Galliano | slide show

“where once the designer might have filled the runway with wild elements of his febrile imagination, this time he had tamed the big game” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Although the collection showed finesse and a strong femininity, the sensibility seemed vague” (The New York Times)
“Ultimately, there was no shaking off the impression that this collection lacked the creative fire of John Galliano at his best” (style.com)
“the tribe whose chic he seemed most interested in is that of the tony types used to forking over ample wampum for fabulous flash-and-fashion, but who these days may be feeling cautious, and who could blame them?” (WWD)

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Christian Lacroix | designer: Christian Lacroix | slide show

“Nowhere was the new mood for keeping frivolity in check more obvious” (The International Herald Tribune)
“a personal commitment to design seemed palpable for the first time” (style.com)
“The flush times of ’80s Nouvelle Society look pretty good right now. And if living the life isn’t an option, dressing the part is, thanks to Christian Lacroix” (WWD)

Collette Dinnigan | designer: Collette Dinnigan | slide show

“there wasn’t enough here to distinguish the clothes from those found in contemporary collections seen on the runways of New York” (style.com)
“[a] disparate lineup” (WWD)

Comme des Garçons | designer: Rei Kawakubo | slide show

“It was weird, but not excessively so. Sober, but not depressing. Good, but not great” (The International Herald Tribune)
“filled with wit and extravagance” (The New York Times)
“now Kawakubo is back to black, presenting it almost as a mathematical treatise in geometric volumes” (style.com)
“Grim, perhaps. But fabulously so” (WWD)

Commuun | designers: Kaito Hori and Iku Furudate | slide show

“elegant in a minimalist and modern style” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Reinforcing their meticulous design approach, rooted in minimalism, the young designers Kaito Hori and Iku Furudate offered gentle tweaks of silhouettes past” (WWD)

Costume National | designer: Ennio Capasa | slide show

“not only messy, it was muddled” (The International Herald Tribune)
“reinterpreted along Modernist architectural lines” (The New York Times)
“As far as visions of the future go, it wasn’t earth-shattering” (style.com)
“Capasa’s high-minded theme spawned some pretty straightforward clothes” (WWD)

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Dries Van Noten | designer: Dries Van Noten | slide show

“this show was as calm as it was revolutionary” (The International Herald Tribune)
“a deeply personal view of Paris, women and French chic . . . that made the chic procession so beguiling to watch” (The New York Times)
“it was Dries Van Noten who assumed the mantle of spokesperson for everywomen’s everyday wear” (style.com)
“offered one of the spring’s few displays of interesting clothes that are also consummately wearable exactly as shown on the runway” (WWD)

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Elie Saab | designer: Elie Saab | slide show

“Watching a show by Elie Saab . . . the question is always the same: can you picture a celebrity wearing that? More often than not this season, the answer was: not likely.” (style.com)
“prov[ed] that Saab can diversify his style while staying true to his ultraglamorous aesthetic” (WWD)

Emmanuel Ungaro | designer: Esteban Cortazar | slide show

“Cortazar brought the color and optimism of both his roots and his youth to the collection” (The International Herald Tribune)
“some cute minidresses with painterly brush-stroke prints from the precocious designer, but not enough to stand up to an important litmus test: which character on ‘Ugly Betty’ would these clothes suit best?” (The New York Times)
“Cortazar did prove he has a nose for trends” (style.com)
“an outing that showed Cortazar’s got promise” (WWD)

Gareth Pugh | designer: Gareth Pugh | slide show

“The stark black and white armor shielding the body, the scales shifting like tectonic plates and the ruffs of righteousness at the neck — Gareth Pugh’s compelling show might have been a metaphor for fashion holding together as the world turns” (The International Herald Tribune)
“something wicked this way comes” (style.com)
Questions as to whether London’s Goth club-kid kingpin Gareth Pugh’s outrageous oeuvre would be up to the Paris runway — consider them answered” (WWD)

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Giambattista Valli | designer: Giambattista Valli | slide show

“the show looked too much like a résumé for someone who wants to take over a couture house” (The International Herald Tribune)
Five decades of women being a good deal more than prized possessions have apparently escaped Mr. Valli’s consciousness” (The New York Times)
“a collection that outlined the go-to certainties of Valli’s appeal: couturelike volumes and polished formality, underpinned by an irrepressible love of the frothy, feminine, partygoing dress” (style.com)
“good old-fashioned fun” (WWD)

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Givenchy | designer: Riccardo Tisci | slide show

“the gaucho-meets-club-scene looks that the designer sent out for his ready-to-wear collection were coarser and less compelling” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Looking at the mess tonight that is the spring Givenchy collection — a label that people covet — it’s easy to believe that mindless acquisition actually has a style” (The New York Times)
“a thread of hard-core hip in Paris that is picking up that Western theme and turning it in a glam-slam direction that flies in the face of recessionary caution” (style.com)
“ ’Cowboy Bondage Couture.’ All words that have considerable resonance in fashion, though seldom in the same thought” (WWD)

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Haider Ackermann | designer: Haider Ackermann | slide show

“Somehow this fine designer has stayed under the fashion radar, but it can be only a matter of time before he is accepted as a burgeoning talent” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Ackermann has a soigné way with the simplest of materials” (style.com)
“[a] poetic springtime state of undress” (WWD)

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Hermès | designer: Jean Paul Gaultier | slide show

“the effect was so upbeat that the merriment and the intense work Gaultier had put in carried the show” (The International Herald Tribune)
“this cowgirl is quite the chicest, classiest example of her kind ever to don a Stetson” (style.com)
“perfect for the jet-set frontier filly on the go” (WWD)

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Hussein Chalayan | designer: Hussein Chalayan | slide show

“The collision of what seemed a clairvoyant vision of society with pretty, simple clothes was Chalayan at his best” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Several dresses were fascinating. . . . But the message felt a tad preachy, like a crossing guard wagging his finger at the Treasury. Hey! Look both ways!” (The New York Times)
The extraordinary talent Chalayan has is his ability to project something emotionally and politically pertinent onto his runway without making it oppressively doom-laden” (style.com)
“Strip away the mechanic motifs and deeper meanings, and sexy dresses were left” (WWD)

Issey Miyake | designer: Dai Fujiwara | slide show

“a fine collection that not only walked the natural world in bare-the-toe sandals but also had a deeper feeling that the designer had, for the first time, captured the Issey Miyake DNA” (The International Herald Tribune)
“both soft and futuristic” (WWD)

Jasemine Di Milo | designer: Jasmine Al Fayed | slide show

“it was hard to find an organizing principle . . . beyond the models’ curly, bright orange wigs and mirrored shades” (style.com)
“Lacking her usual va-va-voom” (WWD)

Jean Paul Gaultier | designer: Jean Paul Gaultier | slide show

“a liquid geometry that Gaultier, now that he is a fine couturier, made look as easy as an Olympian high jump” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Jean Paul Gaultier has certainly mellowed if he finds excitement in a dancer’s leotard and warm-up sweater” (The New York Times)
“felt more like an exercise in styling than a tryout of new ideas” (style.com)
“[Gaultier's] show-stopping modern dance-inspired collection . . . would have made Martha Graham proud” (WWD)

John Galliano | designer: John Galliano | slide show

“The fantastic headgear . . . stole the show from John Galliano” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Under Bo Peep bonnets and sleeping caps made extreme by the milliner Stephen Jones, Mr. Galliano presented clothes that were light and pretty in the best sense” (The New York Times)
“You had to be a bit of a British art-history nerd to get the references John Galliano was dispensing backstage to mostly blank looks from fashion correspondents” (style.com)
“in Galliano’s world, even a reality check is still pretty fantastic” (WWD)

Junya Watanabe | designer: Junya Watanabe | slide show

“Junya Watanabe’s graceful show took the native practice of carrying items on the head and turned it into a festival of nature” (The International Herald Tribune)
“took materials that might easily be judged prosaic and downmarket . . . and made the results delightfully appealing” (The New York Times)
“the kind of familiarity that breeds contentment” (style.com)
“On an otherwise gloomy Tuesday in Paris, Junya Watanable let the sun shine in” (WWD)

Karl Lagerfeld | designer: Karl Lagerfeld | slide show

“this riff on rigor did not cut it” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Lagerfeld went ultra-sharp” (The New York Times)
“If Chanel is Paris and Fendi is Milan, the Karl Lagerfeld line may be the place where he is most in touch with his inner Teuton” (style.com)
“[Lagerfeld] turned his models into a brigade of glam galactic crusaders” (WWD)

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Kris Van Assche | designer: Kris Van Assche | slide show

“Van Assche gave a clear message to the audience, and although men’s wear on women has been done to death, it seemed like the right place to start for a designer known for dressing men” (The International Herald Tribune)
“the Mexican gangbanger’s . . . toughness just came across as flat-out odd” (style.com)
“merch-friendly” (WWD)

Lanvin | designer: Alber Elbaz | slide show

“created that jolt of desire in its vivid mixes of sweet, but never sugary, colors” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Mr. Elbaz’s best dresses had a nonchalant style of draping; hardly D.I.Y., but if you’re wearing a one-shoulder dress in fireball-orange silk with a puff of fabric grazing your face and arm, the effect should be slightly unserious” (The New York Times)
“[Elbaz's] recipe for reductionism and all-out gorgeousness squared the circle with a unique flourish” (style.com)
“bold, audacious and prettily provocative” (WWD)

Limi Feu | designer: Limi Feu | slide show

“Pitched between the childish, cutie-pie ‘kawaii’ Japanese girl and the conservative grown-up woman, Feu, in her third Paris showing, is carving out a niche for herself and her peers” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Just the kind of thing that works with a modern girl’s tattoos” (style.com)
“as is the family wont, everything came intriguingly oversize, slouchy and wonderfully asymmetrical” (WWD)

Loewe | designer: Stuart Ververs | slide show

“Resolving . . . how to grow clothes out of accessories, Stuart Vevers’s mini fashion collection for Loewe mirrored the bags and shoes” (The International Herald Tribune)
“imbued with the kind of luxury that only fully reveals itself when touched” (style.com)
“Brimming with jet-set glitz” (WWD)

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Louis Vuitton | designer: Marc Jacobs | slide show

“a cracking good show” (The International Herald Tribune)
“the modernity of the show ultimately rested on how visual the clothes were” (The New York Times)
“Sexy, saucy, and full-on Parisian. . . . Louis Vuitton came like a cathartic, mood-enhancing cocktail at the end of a long, grinding season” (style.com)
“a glorious testament to the high style of the designer’s adopted city” (WWD)

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Maison Martin Margiela | designer: Martin Margiela | slide show

“somehow this show, for all the enforced jollity, was under the shadow of questions about the house’s future” (The International Herald Tribune)
“it was a strange sensation to walk out of a Margiela show with a sense of déjà vu” (The New York Times)
“a reminder of the continuing relevance of Margiela’s sidelong contributions to stimulating fashion over two decades and 40 collections” (style.com)
“the invisible man left his disciples with enough enigmatic nostalgia to keep them entertained for another 20 years” (WWD)

Manish Arora | designer: Manish Arora | slide show

“It was mad, it was manic, it was in the actual sense of the words a fashion circus” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Swinging, star-embroidered capelets, a glitter-drenched, fringed mohair mini and a rotating carousel dress embroidered with Indian elephants — they were among the magical moments in Manish Arora’s circus act” (WWD)

Martin Grant | designer: Martin Grant | slide show

“Wearing a Grant design will never make you look cutting-edge or avant-garde, but, more to the point, it will never make you look like a fashion victim” (The International Herald Tribune)
“There might be fewer reasons to kick up one’s heels if the markets keep heading south, but for party dresses Martin Grant is still a go-to guy” (style.com)
“a serene mood” (WWD)

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Miu Miu | designer: Miuccia Prada | slide show

“Miuccia Prada closed the Paris spring shows with a fine Miu Miu collection” (The New York Times)
“Sometimes the fabrics were dotted with fraying holes, as if moths had descended and started munching en masse. Other times it looked as if spray-paint artists had gotten their hands on them” (style.com)
“read like a statement on urban decay” (WWD)

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Nina Ricci | designer: Olivier Theyskens | slide show

“there was something haunting that lingered after the last model dragged her long train off the runway” (The International Herald Tribune)
“would look perfect in French film or in a literary-minded fashion shoot” (The New York Times)
“like watching the performance of a long piece of self-referential romantic poetry” (style.com)
“[Theyskens's] collection played like a lamb that roared” (WWD)

Rick Owens | designer: Rick Owens | slide show

“For all the severity of the headdresses and the weirdness of the footwear, this was a show of sophisticated pieces” (The International Herald Tribune)
“The collection wasn’t as awesome as smoke clouds typically promise” (The New York Times)
“Somehow the vaporous ritualism of . . . Owens’s show seemed to link up with the primitivism (cave people, tribalism, that sort of thing) that’s emerging from the fashion ether this season” (style.com)
“the clothes . . . were coolly chic, although Owens did his best to disguise them with scary nuns’ caps and flappy boots” (WWD)

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Rue du Mail | designer: Martine Sitbon | slide show

“strong without being powerful, feminine without being girly and, indeed, sporty” (The International Herald Tribune)
“As a whole . . . the collection was rather overwhelming” (style.com)
“resembled a Cubist composition by Georges Braque” (WWD)

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Sonia Rykiel | designer: Sonia Rykiel | slide show

“spilled over with merriment as the models, wearing jaunty crystal-studded berets, camped up Gallic gorgeousness” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Could there have been anything more quintessentially French than the Sonia Rykiel show Wednesday night?” (The New York Times)
“Thank goodness for Sonia Rykiel. The Paris legend resuscitated what was becoming a bleak season (blame the markets) with a 40th-anniversary dinner-and-show party that goes down in this reporter’s notebook as the most spontaneously exuberant and genuinely fun fashion event in recent history” (style.com)
“Rykiel demonstrated that she has no intention of reining in the party anytime soon” (WWD)

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Sophia Kokosalaki | designer: Sophia Kokosalaki | slide show

“the vital sense of focus was missing, as though Kokosalaki had not yet digested her diverse inspirations” (The International Herald Tribune)
“there was a richness in this collection that Kokosalaki hasn’t reached for before” (style.com)
“Sophistication . . . bodes well for Kokosalaki’s commercial appeal . . . [though] her proclivity for exotic effects does not” (WWD)

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Stella McCartney | designer: Stella McCartney | slide show

“McCartney, reflecting her own image, caught a vibe for a generation of women on the move” (The International Herald Tribune)
“What really worked in her favor was that Ms. McCartney, whose clothes are generally and admirably accessible, introduced some fairly conceptual ideas that still seemed wearable” (The New York Times)
“Simply put, [McCartney]’s got cool-girl style down to a science” (style.com)
“a collection that delighted in the simplicity of its purpose: to function for real women while making them feel beautiful” (WWD)

Tao | designer: Tao Kurihara | slide show

“Tao, as she is known, has carved out a niche between the kawaii cuteness of Japan’s child-woman, to something more positively grown-up” (The International Herald Tribune)
“This was one entirely original Highland fling” (style.com)
“a most adorable and inventive take on the familiar officer motif” (WWD)

Undercover | designer: Jun Takahashi | slide show

“the clothes were as cute as their furry friends” (The International Herald Tribune)
“The problem is that however you look at them, clothes on dummies don’t have the animated appeal of clothes on a girl” (style.com)
“the collection itself . . . was a rather quiet affair for Takahashi” (WWD)

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Veronique Branquinho | designer: Veronique Branquinho | slide show

“the delicate balance between pulled-together and edgy . . . might draw some eyes back [Branquinho's] way” (style.com)
“Girlie variations on men’s tailoring” (WWD)

Viktor & Rolf | designers: Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren | slide show

“proved that there is no substitute for a live show, especially one from such strong performers” (The International Herald Tribune)
“you could actually get a pretty realistic idea of the dresses, dangling like paper lanterns, and how the loudly graphic striped tights and shorts combinations gave off a robotic Balenciaga vibe” (The New York Times)
“the cool concept overshadowed the too-few clothes” (style.com)
“while the new medium gets high marks for showcasing silhouettes . . . it barely passes on fabric and details” (WWD)

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Vivienne Westwood | designer: Vivienne Westwood | slide show

“The haphazard draping of basic fabrics had much more punch than in Westwood’s recent collection and proved that a powerful designer can always switch to a modern moment” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Call it bedsheet couture: Everything . . . could in previous lives have been tablecloths, drapes or shower curtains” (style.com)
“Westwood played out her well-worn repertoire” (WWD)

Wunderkind | designer: Wolfgang Joop | slide show

“If you didn’t ask yourself too many questions about the viability of Joop’s creations — multicolor polka-dot suit, anyone? — this stream-of-consciousness collection was an amusing ride” (style.com)
“offered fluid military-inspired tailoring” (WWD)

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Yohji Yamamoto | designer: Yohji Yamamoto | slide show

“these deceptively simple clothes showed the designer in fine form” (The International Herald Tribune)
“On a day when the Dow plummeted 777 points, the Zen-chant repetition had a calming effect that even a crowd perpetually chasing the next new thing could appreciate” (style.com)
“Serenity has its appeal. Certainly it looked plenty inviting at Yohji Yamamoto” (WWD)

Yves Saint Laurent | designer: Stefano Pilati | slide show

“Pilati made a strong statement at YSL but the fine pieces will look all the better for being simplified” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Mr. Pilati offered a lot of appealing clothes — smart, wearable but somehow missing that real Saint Laurent sex appeal and mystery” (The New York Times)
“by the end of the show the concept of a garment that happens to be joined between the knees. . .had gained a degree of visual inevitability that might be a staging post on the way to normality” (style.com)
“the show played like a painstakingly thought-out academic exercise” (WWD)

Alberta Ferretti | designer: Alberta Ferretti | slide show

“The new focus was all about transparency — a sophisticated peekaboo perforation” (The International Herald Tribune)
“so long as the easy, fluttery, feminine options for evening keep coming, Ferretti gets an unspoken pass. This season . . . it was clear she was keeping up her end of the bargain” (style.com)
“Ferretti branched out with a major fringe factor” (WWD)

Alessandro Dell’Acqua | designer: Alessandro Dell’Acqua | slide show

“By going back to the same roots over and over [Dell'Acqua] is able to see them from angles left unexplored by others in his field” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Taken as a whole, his spring collection was puzzling: part hippie chick, part demi-couture (even though you couldn’t be categorically certain about it), a bit Pocahontas” (style.com)
“sure to have an across-the-board appeal” (WWD)

Antonio Marras | designer: Antonio Marras | slide show

“[Marras] is not only an imaginative metteur en scène; he also invented a world of his own” (The International Herald Tribune)
“a soft-cum-flappy-cum-layered look, which Marras delivered via his signature potpourri of fabrics, patterns, embellishments” (WWD)

Aquilano.Rimondi | designers: Tommaso Aquilano and Roberto Rimondi | slide show

“a front/back look at fashion with the focus often on the exit line . . . resulted in some fine effects” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Aquilano and Rimondi do make pieces well worth crossing a department store to look at” (style.com)
“like going on a lavish gilt trip” (WWD)

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Blumarine | designer: Anna Molinari | slide show

“all in all, [Molinari] succeeds” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Anna Molinari is a designer who never met a sequin she didn’t like” (style.com)
“a romantic lineup that focused on labor-intensive embellishments” (WWD)

Bottega Veneta | designer: Tomas Maier | slide show

“maiden freshness was often pretty and supported a general trend of the season to move from urban to pastoral” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Ah, a leather sundress — just the thing for summer! Tomas Maier of Bottega Veneta is always on his own trip” (The New York Times)
“roused a fleeting but distinct sense of the American prairie, threadbare times and the colors of the dust bowl” (style.com)
“Show notes declared ‘a seemingly unmediated conversation between the body and the materials that cover it.’ If that was so, the body had too little to say” (WWD)

Brioni | designer: | slide show

“all calm and voluptuous elegance, proving that whatever the state of the economy, modern classics are always a good investment” (The International Herald Tribune)
“a parade of fluid, unstructured shapes” (WWD)

Burberry Prorsum | designer: Christopher Bailey | slide show

“Bailey knows that into life some rain must fall, even if spring green ultimately broke through in this quietly beautiful show” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Christopher Bailey at Burberry seemed to return to the Mr. Bailey of his London girl years. . . . Hold that thought, Mr. Bailey” (The New York Times)
“This year, Britain officially had the dullest summer recorded since 1929. . . . .You could see how that big washout might have seeped into Christopher Bailey’s consciousness” (style.com)
“an engaging garden motif” (WWD)

C’N'C Costume National | designer Ennio Capasa | slide show

“a fest of fishnet and see-through fabrics and however the designer tried to dress up the futuristic clothes as ‘techno-rock,’ the result had a familiar club vibe” (The International Herald Tribune)
“In his show notes Ennio Capasa referenced ‘x-ray specs’ . . . and, boy, did he do sheer” (WWD)

Derercuny | designer: Mina Lee | slide show

“The clothes were sweet and pretty, but they’re not making news” (style.com)
“[Lee] gave her muse, an aloof aristocratic belle, an edgy glam rock style” (WWD)

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D&G | designers: Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana | slide show

“because the clothes were trim and fresh, this parade of seaside boardwalk outfits in red, white and blue worked surprisingly well” (The International Herald Tribune)
“a kick from beginning to end, which is, after all, what Saint-Tropez fun in the sun is all about” (style.com)
“Like [Grace] Jones covering Edith Piaf, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana’s riff on Coco in Cap d’Antibes was improbably enjoyable” (WWD)

Dolce & Gabbana | designers: Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana | slide show

“had jacket sleeves in flapping circles and skirts with angular panels mixed in with pajamas, as if a gifted child was doing math in bed” (The International Herald Tribune)
“not a whiff of economic anxiety was detectable within these four walls, and that in itself was curiously cheering” (style.com)
“the most audacious display of lavishness we’ve seen so far this season. Some might call it hopeful and others, economically incorrect” (WWD)

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Dsquared | designers: Dan and Dean Caten | slide show

“Dsquared went back for inspiration to “Charlie’s Angels” and the 1970s by way of Tom Ford’s Gucci in the 1990s, but it made for a familiar show” (The International Herald Tribune)
“the image of three former runway hoofers squaring their shoulders as Charlie’s Angels . . . was bluntly silly, but the collection offered some great-looking denim” (The New York Times)
“one of Dsquared’s most wearable collections in seasons” (style.com)
“[a] sexy romp” (WWD)

Emporio Armani | designer Giorgio Armani | slide show

“As with all second lines, Emporio has to be given a character of its own. But from the Ottoman empire via cruise boat to dance floor seems a long stretch” (The International Herald Tribune)
“a collection that had many strong points” (style.com)
“looked to be of the commercial flower-power variety” (WWD)

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Etro | designer: Veronica Etro | slide show

“a very winning collection” (The International Herald Tribune)
“In a season of prints, Etro’s are subtle standouts” (style.com)
“Instead of piling on too much of this and that, [Etro] held back, and it made a big difference” (WWD)

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Fendi | designer: Karl Lagerfeld | slide show

“had a touch of the peasant/pastoral innocence that is moving fashion away from those toxic city slickers” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Exactly who started this season’s trends for transparency, pale color and bouncy crinolined skirts, we may never know. All that’s certain is that it takes a practiced eye to handle all three of them at once — but if anyone can get away with it, it’s Karl Lagerfeld” (style.com)
“provocative, but not in a sexy way” (WWD)

Francesco Scognamiglio | designer: Francesco Scognamiglio | slide show

“As the kids say, Francesco Scognamiglio has mad skills.” (style.com)
“Scognamiglio’s blend of ’80s and ’30s silhouettes had a high-quality sensibility” (WWD)

Gianfranco Ferré | designers: Tommaso Aquilano and Roberto Rimondi | slide show

“[Aquilano and Rimondi] had maybe clicked too hard on the ‘refresh’ button” (The International Herald Tribune)
“The new designers at Gianfranco Ferré . . . did a fine job updating the style of the house” (The New York Times)
“Aquilano and Rimondi did structure without forgoing everything that made the clothes feminine” (style.com)
“this is a work in progress, with an emphasis on work” (WWD)

Giorgio Armani | designer: Giorgio Armani | slide show

“a fine show that had turned to current style without ever being blown off course” (The International Herald Tribune)
“ ’This collection confirms a style that has changed the face of fashion,’ the program notes stated. That’s not too bold of a claim when it comes from a designer like Giorgio Armani, the man who rethought the modern suit, then put his own sparklingly sinuous stamp on red-carpet wear” (style.com)
“This was the Armani of old — read signature, not dated — before his innate chic pragmatism cross-pollinated with increasingly exaggerated elements of exotica” (WWD)

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Gucci | designer: Frida Giannini | slide show

“a sulphurous safari” (The International Herald Tribune)
“the collection felt more merchandised than designed” (The New York Times)
“a clearly segmented, businesslike collection with no pretense of being anything other than hip, immediately understandable clothes for a young global audience” (style.com)
“these clothes bore all the exotica of a piñata party in Portsmouth” (WWD)

Iceberg | designer: Paolo Gerani | slide show

“inspired a serious case of déjà vu” (style.com)
“an unabashedly sexy collection” (WWD)

Jil Sander | designer: Raf Simons | slide show

“To say that the Jil Sander show went ‘beyond the fringe’ is to simplify a stunningly creative collection of dangling strands” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Everything was exceedingly well done: balanced, desirable, new” (The New York Times)
“the development of the overriding vision of a clean, even glacial modernism is a powerful thing to watch” (style.com)
“a quiet stunner” (WWD)

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Just Cavalli | designer: Roberto Cavalli | slide show

“A seashore backdrop and a catwalk of sand dunes might have suggested in advance that Roberto Cavalli was in his head, as well as with the clothes at his Just Cavalli show, still on vacation.” (The International Herald Tribune)
“The little bit of this, little bit of that approach gave the show an I-just-nicked-this-from-my-mom’s-closet vibe, totally in keeping with the way girls too young to remember the ’80s dress today.” (style.com)
“pretty at times, but much seemed culled from [Cavalli's] archives, and those of a few others” (WWD)

Krizia | designer: Mariuccia Mandelli | slide show

“an interesting mix of tough and tender” (The International Herald Tribune)
“a polished and versatile collection” (WWD)

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Luisa Beccaria | designer: Luisa Beccaria | slide show

“cohesive, well-made . . . and utterly charming” (style.com)
“All ready to party” (WWD)

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Marni | designer: Consuelo Castiglioni | slide show

“offered a joyous way to chase away doom and gloom” (The International Herald Tribune)
“Consuelo Castiglioni’s Marni show was wonderfully tone-deaf to everything else going on — and more so than usual” (The New York Times)
“Marni has reached that serene plateau of development and is reveling in undisputed ownership of print, color and the magpie mix-up” (style.com)
“[Castiglioni] put her arty eclectic on steroids” (WWD)

MaxMara | designer: Laura Lusuardi | slide show

“What didn’t go down as well were the . . acid yellow and Yves Klein blue outfits that looked as if they had been dressed up in retina-searing color to distract the eye from the prosaic ensembles” (The International Herald Tribune)
“what transpired on the runway only served to raise bewildering questions” (style.com)
“a bit too David Bowie-gone-garden party” (WWD)

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Missoni | designer: Angela Missoni | slide show

“Angela Missoni . . . changed tack, giving a streamlined elegance to a Missoni collection that a couple of years ago seemed aimed at her 20-something daughters” (The International Herald Tribune)
“a strong collection of bold, abstract prints” (The New York Times)
“Angela Missoni continued to steer the family business along the grown-up course she’s been charting for the past couple of seasons” (style.com)
“a gentle, rather mellow outing” (WWD)

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Moschino | designer: Rosella Jardini | slide show

“Everything is coming up roses for the designer Rosella Jardini and her Moschino line” (The International Herald Tribune)
“there wasn’t as much heart as usual in this overlong and somewhat repetitive collection, which is usually such a reliable source for wit and whimsy” (style.com)
“Between the gigantic bow tie, ’60s-ish topper and bejeweled cat’s-eye sunglasses, the first look out was black and white and Moschino all over” (WWD)

Moschino Cheap & Chic | designer: Rosella Jardini | slide show

“wearable, fresh and colorful clothes that kept a sense of fun at their center” (The International Herald Tribune)
“If you were looking for a post-Black Monday pick-me-up, you could do worse than Rosella Jardini’s Moschino Cheap & Chic show” (style.com)
“a girlish potpourri vibe, done up in a majorly arty way” (WWD)

Pollini | designers: Jonathan Saunders and Nicholas Kirkwood | slide show

“a clear start for Saunders” (The International Herald Tribune)
“In a brisk presentation of 27 looks (quick-march, and staged three times so audiences could flow in and out within 15 minutes), the duo framed a breezy snapshot of what’s to come” (style.com)
“pretty clothes with plenty of commercial appeal” (WWD)

Prada | designer: Miuccia Prada | slide show

“In her deft play on womanhood and seduction, Miuccia Prada has rarely put a foot wrong. But this time she took a tumble as obvious as the unfortunate model whose figure, folding up like a pipe cleaner as she hit the concrete floor, made even the most seasoned fashionista squirm” (The International Herald Tribune)
“There was no real taste, no mastery of an idea or a feeling, and probably no real place for these clothes except on the runway or in a picture” (The New York Times)
“There was something fabulously Italian about all this shameless reveling in femininity” (style.com)
“It looked as if the ‘Mad Men’ gals were getting a little something on the side from Mad Max (and maybe Ton Sur Ton)” (WWD)

Pringle of Scotland | designer: Clare Waight Keller | slide show

“the show swam too far into the deep end of reinvention” (The International Herald Tribune)
“[a] pleasant if somewhat lackluster Pringle collection” (style.com)
“Too much artsy-craftsy and too little of that terrific at-ease sportswear Pringle is known for” (WWD)

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Pucci | designer: Matthew Williamson | slide show

“upbeat to a fault” (The International Herald Tribune)
“it’s not entirely certain that its founder, Emilio, would have recognized this collection as a descendant of his own” (style.com)
“It was a lot to handle” (WWD)

Roberto Cavalli | designer: Roberto Cavalli | slide show

“total aesthetic confusion, unless you freeze-framed each outfit” (The International Herald Tribune)
“It looked like there were too many cooks in the kitchen” (style.com)
“perfect for a Versailles theme party at the Playboy Mansion” (WWD)

Salvatore Ferragamo | designer: Christina Ortiz | slide show

“tough chic, with a 1980s tinge, looked like a tough sell to the discreetly elegant Ferragamo woman” (The International Herald Tribune)
“far too racy for Ferragamo’s classic customer, and yet not on-trend enough to woo new ones” (style.com)
“Ferragamo is a great fashion and accessories company, run by a great family, and it deserves a great designer — which it does not have” (WWD)