Spring has sprung and brought with it...

If I had to sum up the biggest message coming out of New York Fashion Week to us consumers already starting to think about spring wardrobes, I could easily do it in a simple two word sentence; think light.

At a time when our economy seems to be taking a steeper and steeper fall into a black hole, or perhaps the better color would be red, and America is in great need of a Prozac than ever before, it seems that the designers are all somehow incorporating a sense of lightness into their collections that acknowledges the move to the more simplistic Americans are turning to due to the economy.

One of the easiest to spot was color. As is typical in spring, a time of renewal and birth, collections incorporated a great deal of lighter tones that go with the season, as well as the need for happiness and optimism we are craving. Luca Luca stuck to a mostly white palette in their line, the closest thing to black being a sort of inky-grey, while Badgley Mischka paired anything black with something of a lighter tone. A great deal of designers also used whitish shades hues of colors, a particular favorite seeming to be something in the buttercup range of yellow.

Another noticeable trend seemed to be lightweight fabrics, some going as far as to be completely sheer. Designers had no problem having pieces that showed the wearers god-given assets to the world, Calvin Klein’s see-through raincoat taking the cake as one of the more daring, and perhaps the most unreadily wearable, pieces. On the more conservative side, this trend translated into the use of tulle and chiffon in a great number of collections. Doing it best, I felt, was Monique Lhuillier, who toned down on beading and let the fabric do all the talking.