Mowers and Shakers

I'm still gradually trawling through all the shows from the last few weeks. At first I was kind of frantic to get through all of them in a timely manner and report back, but after a day or two, when I realized that evidently when you sign a lease in New York City these days it also contractually obligates you to show a collection at Fashion Week (good googly-moogly -- dozens & dozens of them!) I lost a bit of enthusiasm. About which I felt bad for approximately ten minutes, until I remembered that what was showing in the runways is Fall 2008, but what is actually in the stores is Fall 2007, and then I got over it completely. We have pleeeeeenty of time to weed through all this stuff.

Zac Posen's inspirations for his latest show were evidently cited as "Days of Heaven, the Shakers, and the wheat fields of the Great Plains." Ummm, okay. Days of Heaven I can kind of go with, because it's one of the most beautiful movies ever filmed. I've always loved Shaker furniture, certainly. I guess what we're headed toward is something severe, tailored, simple. That sounds good.

And sometimes he does a lovely job with this:

Except for the bonnet. The bonnet is just silly.

Great pantsuit. Beautiful proportions.

I just love this.

All of these looks are beautifully tailored (which Posen does so well, which is especially impressive to me since he's like, 12 years old) and really quite wearable, elegant pieces. I'm smitten with the long lean look of them.

But sometimes young Zac took his inspiration a wee bit too literally...

Look, it's wheat! Because it's inspired by... wheat! Get it???

I don't care if it's a glammed-up bonnet, it's still a bonnet, and no woman wants to look like Baby Huey after a session with the Bedazzler.

Then there were some pieces that didn't really fit into the scheme of things, but Posen is a big red carpet go-to guy, and he has to provide his BFFs like Natalie Portman with some party dresses.

I predict we see the blue one at the next Hollywood awards show -- various raccoon-eyed stylists are frantically barking at their Treos as you read this, hoping to secure that gown for their recently-detoxed clients.

I absolutely love the fabric being used here, like a watercolor painting or a cloudy sky (one over a wheatfield, perhaps?). The short dress is lovely, but the long ones are a bit... well, that's not just a cloudy sky, that's an impending hurricane, right there. Good grief, you'd better hope it's not windy when you wear that dress.

And then there were a few looks that the most generous of us could really only describe as head-scratchers...

Crop circles? The wheat field after the thresher has come through?

High-fashion feather duster. He cannot be serious.

Maybe if Cher became a Shaker, but otherwise...

As usual, Posen's handbags are gorgeous

but as we say in my neck of the woods, he sure is proud of 'em. (For those of you who don't speak Southern, that means "damned expensive.")

I have to give Posen a lot of credit, given, as I said, that he is such a youngster -- only 27 years old and a relative newcomer to the biz. He has impeccable credentials (Central Saint Martins, the Met Costume Institute), he knows how to cut, and he likes to make women look gorgeous, which can make a guy pretty popular. His first few collections were heavy on the 1940's retro-glam, but he's moved away from that to more adventurous things, which I was really happy to see. Silver Screen Siren is a great look, but it does not a noteworthy design career make (do you hear me, Misters Badgley & Mischka?). I liked a lot of things about this collection, and it's also a good illustration of the silhouette that's developing right now -- long, lean, tailored, close to the body. (With the exception of the hot air balloon dresses, of course.) Get out your ThighMasters, friends, the days of the hourglass are numbered.

Photos: Style.com