It’s not uncommon for designers to say that a particular collection was inspired by, say, a painting, and it’s usually rather interesting to see how that painting inspired a print, a colour palette or a silhouette.
In a nutshell it’s always interesting to see where, or rather how far, an inspiration can lead you.
This is what annoyed me about what has been going on so far at New York Fashion Week: what we saw so far could mainly be considered as a pile of ready-to-wear clothes based on one idea, selling as much as possible, but lacking craftsmanship, beauty and interesting inspirations.
I was therefore happy to see some inspirations coming back in a few collections yesterday.
You may like or not Alexander Wang’s work, and his crowd of "It" girls, but the young designer definitely managed to get a precise inspiration, rugby, and rework it into his clothes.
Sweatshirts were half turned into corsets and tied at the back with leather strings reproducing the traditional hand stitched leather rugby ball, a trick also applied to leather shorts and, in some ways, also to the leather wrist clutches that looked more like deflated rugby balls.
In the early days of rugby, the balls were covered in pigskin, but the material was banned in the 30s when it became clear that it wasn’t cost efficient. From then on the material of choice became leather, divided in four pieces, usually dyed brown and sewn together on the inside.
This story seemed to have been on Wang's mind as he employed tanned leather for his well-structured biker jackets, shoulder patches on sweatshirts, details on shorts, trousers and hats that looked more like rugby headguards.
The rugby inspiration was also clear in the designer's light stripy and cropped knitted pieces, in fluffy black and white jumpers, and in the ample and voluminous silhouette of the sleeves of his sweatshirts that called to mind the shoulder protections worn by rugby players.
In the second part of the catwalk, Wang briefly returned to his trademark body hugging designs with cut out motifs around the hip area (an idea apparently applied to the back of the socks…) and also included a few sweatshirts with sheer inserts.
As a whole it wasn’t a bad collection, but editing it down to a maximum of 30 looks and a minimum of 20 would have probably avoided a few fashion faux pas such as a cumbersome and rather shapeless cape with an integrated hat-like hood.
Now that Wang has proved he can design chic sportswear, he could maybe focus on working onto something slightly more timeless than sportswear with an edge. 
Being Ralph Rucci the first American designer in more than 60 years to be invited to show under his own name in Paris by the French Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture since Mainbocher in the 1930s, it was clear that Chado Ralph Rucci’s Spring/Summer 2010 collection was going to be suspended between couture and prêt-à-porter, verging more towards what could be described as “couture-à-porter”.
With this collection Ralph Rucci showed us that a perfectly cut trouser suit is undoubtedly more timeless than a series of redundant mini-dresses and also explored a rather interesting inspiration, the work of late choreographer Pina Bausch.
Her minimal costumes already inspired previous collections, but Rucci seemed to be more interested in the physical aspects of her work since he printed on an ethereal A-line evening gown and a trench coat, an image of dancers from a Bausch ballet.
There were also further inspirations: interior design was tackled in a white trench with embroideries of a Japanese tea-house and literature emerged in an evening gown with golden embroidered details from the tales of Genji.
The strength of Rucci’s collection stood in the cut, but also in the luxurious fabrics chosen and in the sculptural, almost architectural, motifs created by pleating and twisting chiffon and then applying it to skirt suits and dresses.
Among the newest designers that showcased their work so far, I quite enjoyed Ohne Titel.
CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalists and winners of the 2009 Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation award, Flora Gill and Alexa Adams reinterpreted in a sort of Pop Art key Egyptian artworks, coming up with interesting pieces of knitwear characterised by graphic motifs and bold colours.
I must admit I preferred the first part of the collection with its black and white tuxedo matched with a cropped sweater with geometrical motifs, body-con dresses and neckpieces recalling the style of mummies (though in a rather pleasant way) and draped skirts (matched with elaborated leggings) that almost reproduced in their folds Egyptian loin cloths.
Jackets with asymmetrical fastenings and deconstructed lapels were another highlight as were the socks paired with Cesare Paciotti’s lace up footwear.
Ohne Titel’s feathery designs didn't add much to the collection, in fact they may have been taken out in favour of further knitwear pieces or deconstructed suits, but, as a whole, Adams and Gill showed that they perfectly know what tailoring means and also understand that not all their clients may have the perfect body to wear skintight dresses, a thing not many designers seem to have understood this season.
Among the designers who could have done much better there are Jeremy Laing, United Bamboo and Vivienne Tam.
Laing has the skills to do much better and relying on functionally practically pieces is perfectly understandable in our financially critical times, yet, there was too much repetition in his draped pieces, leggings and mini-dresses and also a graphically limited palette.
There was proof that Laing could have come up with something slightly more intense just by looking at the work he did on the surfaces of the textiles chosen for this collection.
Miho Aoki and Thuy Pham of United Bamboo mistook elegance for a hat or a headscarf. The effect, unfortunately, didn’t always look good on the models, but ended up giving them a rather stiff appearance and detracting attention from the designs on the runway.
Undoubtedly, the best looks at United Bamboo were the ones in which prints by French illustrator Pier Fichefeux were employed. Indeed Fichefeux's work added a much needed touch of colour to the entire collection. 
Vivienne Tam got extremely obsessed with butterflies and employed this theme in as many ways as possible, from prints of blown up wings to appliquéd motifs.
Though butterflies are an overused theme in fashion, Tam had some good intuitions such as a butterfly dress that had a sort of macramé lace effect and used quite beautiful colour combinations for her prints, yet they weren't simply enough to declare the collection entirely new nor original.
The search for the best inspiration at New York Fashion Week continues.
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