We have always loved Consuelo Castiglioni's Marni more for her signature shapes, tunics, belted sack dresses and cardigans, than for her quirky grandma magpie aesthetic so it is with some disappointment we see her kooky side got the best of the Spring 2009 colection.

Bright neons, crazy mixed prints, cartoonish combinations and enormous accessories are all things we have seen in the past from Marni, but they were colorful additions to the core basics of innovative technical fabrics and subtly over the top silhouettes, they were never the line itself. It was all a little too animated, even a bit too ecclectic and this is coming from an editor wedded to the to the kind of individual dress for yourself aesthetic that has become the Marni way. We are confident we can break down the sheers and the polkda dots into something closer to our preferred Marni. So perhaps this is Consuelo's way of making her customer think a little harder to be a Marni girl.

We really hate to compare legitimately unique designers to their peers, preferring to judge each collection on its own merits, but we couldn't help but see a little bit of our beloved Marni in Vera Wang's Spring 2009 collection shown just a few hours ago. Vera has always had a signature aesthetic that borders on the dark and dreamy, one which we find quite compelling by and large.

But with her Spring 2009 collection we felt it had a kind of brooding maturity that we often associate with Consuelo Castiglioni. Vera has often as if she were appealing to the young and Gothic among us even if beneath that darkness it was a very pretty girl with a yen for ballet. But this collection had a kind of studied seriousness that made us do a double take. Dark loose dresses, cardigans, full skirts, boxy proportions and easy styling said this is a woman's wardrobe.

We long to be 40, casually creative (but moneyed) and graying just to have the gravitas to pull off the kind of clothing that says I am relaxed, older, confident and much too stylish to require any frippery but the most intellectual accessories. Marni has always helped us aspire towards that goal and now we feel Vera might be on our list as well.