Black, white and printed all over at Fashion Week

It unfolded with an oyster-colored jersey daytime dress with an open back and full skirt paired with a cropped jacket, and closed with a dusty blue strapless evening gown dusted at the hemline with the print of peach-colored seashells.

Karan hit on multiple textures but often stuck to monochromatic outfits, embracing the pinks you’ll see in the dawn or dusk sky, as well as soft seaside blues and greens, but most looks were varying shades of stone. She seemed more interested in mixing multiple textures, from sheer jersey and chiffon to raffia and linen, and twisting some silhouettes on the bias, creating a more asymmetrical silhouette.

THOM BROWNE

With nearly 200 designers showing their wares all over the city, for an entire week, it’s virtually impossible to stand out, right?

Not if you’re Thom Browne.

“I love to entertain,” the designer said in what was, frankly, an understatement.

As the crowd entered the room in the stately New York Public Library, 10 male models stood against a wall in gray seersucker suits, their heads covered with huge silvery orbs _ like Coneheads, but rounder at the top. At each end, a man played the xylophone.

Suddenly a flock of female ballet dancers arrived. They wore silvery pointe shoes (these were real ballerinas) and stiff hoop dresses, like the ones you’d imagine under Scarlett O’Hara’s gowns. They took their places on small circular platforms and danced in place, en pointe.

Then came the models, in suits and coats and skirts, exaggerated in all sorts of ways, all in gray at first. The men gradually took the women and circled them on the round platforms. As they did, other models entered, this time bearing splashes of color _ pinks, greens, oranges.

Browne, whose work was honored this summer at the White House, explained that he’d been inspired by a Bauhaus artist popular in the 1920s, Oskar Schlemmer, a German known for his choreography _ “conceptual ballets,” Browne called them _ as well as his visual art. “This is my homage to him,” he said.

CAROLINA HERRERA

When you’re Carolina Herrera, there is no reason to stand in your stiletto heels way out on a limb. Herrera tweaked her signature chic look just enough to be in line with some of the emerging trends without straying too far from what her woman likes.

She moved everything a bit away from the body and she played a lot with hemlines. Herrera gave a name to the popular dress length just a tad below mid-calf that’s graced many catwalks during these previews for editors, buyers and stylists: the “longuette” dress.

But to go with the vibe of relaxed glamour that also has been pervasive, she trimmed pantsuits into shorts suits, even for evening, turning out black wool cropped jacket with white piping paired with black wool flounce shorts, and a cream-colored distressed organza jacket with pleated shorts, both decorated with gold “lightening” embroidery.

Her usual ballgown evolved into more of a slip-style gown with floral embellishment.

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