This week we brought you 2009 trend reports on bows, velvet, and fringe and today we're breaking into print. Florals were the much talked about trend this season and it's only natural that they should stick around for Fall 08. Wintery florals were used in a variety of ways; they were magpie in one example and romantic in the next. There was not on way in which they were used but one uniform quality each variation consulted. That is, they were more complex and rich than the florals we saw for Spring. Like many trends the possibilities of what on can do with a floral print are endless. Florals also played into a few other major trends for Fall 08, namely, luxe and layering. The florals were luxe when paired with fur and given a high-shine finish, as with Michael Kors and Sari Gueron. They were also, overall, layered with color and texture (in both luxe and non-luxe instances), as we saw from Peter Som and Diane Von Furstenburg. Thanks to the range of ways in which floral was represented this Fall 08, this big-time Spring 08 trend still feels quite in bloom.

Peter Som, Zac Posen, and Phillip Lim did it too, the streamlined magpie. Perhaps one of the most interesting visions during New York Fashion Week was that of layered texture. Layering and texture, two relatively ambiguous terms, combined this Fashion Week as an exercise in personality. As for layering, it's mostly the sort of slouchy-chic Americana aesthetic, which appears season after season, and as for texture, the ability of technology, art, and architecture to inspire the most innovative textiles (or at least, those reimagined through pairing). The Oscar de la Renta Fall 2008 collection gave us one of the best examples of this theme. A buttery soft plum leather skirt with tulle overlay was paired with a cashmere knit sweater in purples and greens. The mixture of these fabrics, the layering employed, was delivered seamlessly. Never has magpie been so streamlined.

Yesterday, we talked with the MAC team about the rock n' roll inspired makeup for Bill Blass. The truth is, you never know how the makeup will turn out on the runway. No matter how beautiful it looks backstage, when the models get hit with bright, white lights and a million flashbulbs, it can be a disaster. Funnily enough, the makeup for Bill Blass wasn't our favorite close-up but looked spectacular on the runway.





The show, it turns out, was not of the rock n' roll variety. The look of Peter Som's collection for Bill Blass was rather ladylike with a nod to film noir (and all those powerful mischievous women). The plum, cobalt, and aqua palette, set against black was striking and high waisted belting kept everything tucked in where it counts. We suppose the reason for the rock n' roll makeup was mostly the need for intensity. The makeup served to mature the collection, and encouraged its dark side, rather than its pretty one.

Whoever said fashion had a conscious must have been reading the post-Inconvenient Truth press release from A/W 07. For A/W 08, however, the act has been dropped and fur, the most sinful of fashion's fabrics, has taken over Manhattan. It's abundance signals a sense of luxury taking the mood for A/W 08 and we suspect this pill won't be an easy one to swallow for those who favor conscious garments to glamorous ones.