New York Fashion Week shows off feminine dresses
Samantha Critchell

NEW YORK—A woman’s best bet for spring fashion success? It’s still the dress. But the spring 2008 styles shown at Wednesday’s opening of New York Fashion Week were more loose and feminine than the ladylike, polished fall fashions now in stores.
Gwen Stefani’s L.A.M.B. collection offered both mod frocks and sexy sheaths. BCBG Max Azria showed sheer, flowy dresses, while Abaete turned to ‘40s-inspired sheaths and halters for the collections shown at Bryant Park.
New York Fashion Week lasts eight days, previewing the spring-summer looks of 60 designers for fashion editors, retail buyers and stylists. Highlights this season will include Ralph Lauren celebrating his 40 years in fashion with a black-tie dinner Saturday night.
Dresses have been a strong trend the past three fashion cycles, but what started with short, boxy shifts in the spring morphed into shirtdresses for fall. It seems next season’s shape — at least in early shows — is a loose sheath, one that glides over an hourglass shape without sticking to it. For men, Nautica showed shorter hemlines while Perry Ellis experimented with different textures, such as bamboo fibber.
L.A.M.B.
Gwen Stefani’s L.A.M.B. collection was the most highly stylized of the day. The clothes ranged from retro mod frocks to wearable-yet-sexy sheath dresses, all shooting out onto the runway against a black-and-white video backdrop on models wearing clunky heels.
The palette was almost entirely black and white. A handful of the outfits were costumey — particularly a double-breasted coat that she called the Abingdon Road coat and a pair of matching short shorts. Stefani might be able to pull this off onstage, but the average woman would have trouble wearing it, no matter how cute it looked on the runway. Overall, though, Stefani, along with stylist Andrea Lieberman, offered several looks that were in step with her young, hip customer, including a military-inspired jacket with a peekaboo neckline worn with a plaid pleated dress and a houndstooth beaded shift dress with a pleated cape jacket.
MARCHESA
Marchesa is a label that has quickly become a big player on the red carpet. It went for drama with its newest collection. “That’s a goddess dress,” gushed Candy Pratts Price, executive fashion editor at Style.com, when she spotted a long, black, lace-and-tulle slipdress with embroidery, an ivory underlay and ribbon detail at the empire waist. A strapless gown made of tulle and covered with gold embroidery was equally impressive, maintaining an appearance of delicacy under a hefty amount of metal.