Right before New York Fashion Week started silvery and golden studs, spikes and fringes of tinkling metallic cones were still all the rage both in clothes and accessories.
A while back I interviewed a footwear designer who actually revealed to me he had stopped designing shoes for women and focused on men’s footwear because the current trend wasn’t favourable to his elegant and chic inspirations, but it was all about aggressive shapes and silhouettes with nasty spikes protruding practically everywhere.
New York Fashion Week changed it all, though, and femininity became the keyword for many designers. Though there were too many designers who mistook femininity for neutral colours and cutesy prints, others reinterpreted the theme and tried to create a feminine look through frills, ruches and ruffles. 
A few days ago we saw at Preen’s which are the consequences of the “ruffled approach”, in their silk ruffled numbers in shocking pink or black and lace inserts but that was only the start: Gilles Mendel at J. Mendel mainly focused on sculptural and sharp designs, adding a softer touch with tulle and organza details that created frills around the bodice or the skirt on draped lemony and orange dresses and beige, white or ice evening gowns.
Severity was the keyword at Julian Louie’s as his rather geometrical and precise collection in neutral shades proved, but there was still room for softness in organza ruffles applied to the hips on skirts and mini-dresses, soft round ruffled collars and cascades of fringe-like elements and Swarovski crystals. 
Yet the king of the ruched, frilled and ruffled look was definitely Marc Jacobs.
In a way, looking at his collection it was inevitable to hear Coco Chanel’s words echoing in your mind, “Le Scheherazade c'est facile. Une petite robe noir c'est difficile” (The Scheherazade look is easy. A little black dress is difficult.)
Chanel criticised with these words Paul Poiret and his over-embellished and lavish designs inspired by Oriental trends, highlighting how it’s easy to come up with an extremely original yet over-decorative and maybe slightly ridiculous look, while it's difficult to strip things down and create something minimally unique.
Jacobs quoted as inspirations for his collection, the theatre and ballet, without mentioning any specific play, show or performance. The fashion media tried a few comparisons, but, in my opinion, there is only one comparison that truly works and it’s the one with Poiret.
There were echoes of the “King of Fashion” in Jacobs’ oversized harem pants, in his metallic dresses covered with swirling waves of pleated ruches and ruffles, almost modern interpretations of Poiret’s "1002nd Night" silver lamé and green gauze dress with harem pants covered in blue, green, red and yellow beads designed in 1911.
Winged pointy sandals were crossovers between traditional Japanese geta sandals and the petite shoes worn in Le minaret by Mademoiselle Corbé. Some skirts were excessively frilly, and ruffles seemed to appear even in more severe looks such as pin-striped trousers and jackets.
There were ruches and ruffles of any size and dimension, expanding and contracting like little fans, decorating the shoulders and cuffs of a sequinned Pierrot-evoking net-like "costume" – oh sorry – I mean cropped trouser suit or covering a short nude number that looked more like a crossover between a ballerina and a clown dress. 
More sporty inspirations were introduced via little cardigans, long light knitwear dresses and cyclist shorts worn with matching bum bags (spare us the bum bag mania, please).
Some commentators saw echoes of Rei Kawakubo, others mentioned the spirit of the Kabuki theatre seeing the white make up and blood red lips, most saw in the collection endless originality (which, to tell you the truth, after days in which banality reigned supreme, it's almost understandable…), but, essentially, the collection proved that Jacobs may not be a genius, but a clever stylist with a big enough archive and a rather interesting imagination.
You wouldn’t otherwise explain the success of the underwear as outerwear look (a trend as old as Madonna) with bras and corsets worn on top of formal shirts, sheer leggings and footless socks worn under dresses and shorts and even tights peeping over the top of pants.
Layering it all did the final trick, but it's right when you saw all that carefully layered style that Chanel's words came to mind, "Le Scheherazade c'est facile…".
Maybe only/if Jacobs strips down a bit his look we will be able to see if he's an irreverent genius or just a very talented and imaginative stylist. Until then we can only guess.
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