In times of economic trouble, designers tend to hunker down, search their archives and their DNA, and go back to their heritage. It's what they believe their customers want in uncertain times. Sure enough, this week, two of fashions' brightest stars did just that- and the results in both cases...

It is now officially midweek in the fabulous frenzy that is New York Fashion Week. The trends for next fall/winter have been spotted: masculine/feminine, the tomboy look, cozy oversized sweaters, vests and cocoon coats, lots of leather and black, black and more black. The runways this week resemble a convention...

Perhaps Diane von Furstenberg captured the zeitgeist of the season best. "I always wanted to live a mans life in a woman' body" was her own dedication to her Sunday fashion show. There was the yin and yang of flirty dresses worn with man tailored jackets; butterfly silk jersey...

Upon looking back, I realize it's one thing to cover Fashion Week. It's quite another to covet the clothes. After seven straight days of attempted objectivity, trying to make sense of the emerging images, ideas, trends and designers, there's always this little voice in the back of my head imploring,...

It's supposed to look like the jacket you borrowed from your boyfriend: oversized, big shouldered and boxy. They're called boyfriend jackets, and the Spring 2010 shows in New York have runways filled with them. We have the jackets, but where are the boyfriends to go with them? It's as if...

And a little child shall lead them. In the religion that is fashion, one of the seven stations of the cross plays out on the runways of New York City's Bryant Park. And each season there is a new little child/wunderkind who catches the imagination and proclaimed by the disciples/editors...

No one expects the doom and gloom of the economy to encourage lots of opulence. But, hey, even this year there will be some parties to dress for! And this year's take on toned down evening wear has produced some great looks. For most designers this has meant less sparkle,...

What's black and white and neon all over? Mid-Fashion Week under the Tents at Bryant Park. That's Michael Kors, Narciso Rodriguez and Marc Jacobs for Fall '09.

Narciso does what he does best: very fitted architectural outfits for sleek urban warriors. There's a new take on the turtleneck with what...

Question: How does one dress for the last dance on the Titanic? That seems to be the metaphorical question that's being played out on runways all over New York for its biannual Fashion Week. How will we dress for fall? This when the economy is tanking faster than you can...

Plenty, in my opinion.

They both are selling hope for change, and with it, dreams of a more beautiful tomorrow: If you only buy my dress, or my candidate, your whole life will look and feel better.

In short, they are both the stuff...

Ahh..the frill of it all.

Another Fashion Week here in New York, another frenzy. But hidden in all the hairspray, hubbub and hilarious air kisses are clues not only to what we'll be wearing next season, but what that says about us as a society right now,...

While we may be having a little bit of a problem introducing the concept in Iraq, democracy reigned supreme under the tents at New York Fashion Week! Which is certainly odd, because it seemed only just a short time ago that the fashion world was just as much of...