A Fashionable Feel...: The Spring 2013 Collections: The Best of the Best (As I See 'Em)

What a whirlwind of a fashion month!

The overall sense of the collections this go round was full of punch and drive and no one, I felt, was off of their game here in my Spring Round Up. I got the overwhelming sense that many designers really found a solid point-of-view that pushed their design aesthetic either forward, laterally, or into and entirely new direction. Also concurrently, all designers seemed to have a real sense of the season for which they were designing for but keeping that sense rooted in a year round vibe, seen in the myriad choice of fabrications and the use of particular prints and textures and darker hues/colors that one would expect to find in a Fall or a Resort collection rather then a warm-weather focused season such as the Spring collections.

The showcase themes of the Spring collections are full of lightheartedness and whimsy, and extremely reminiscent of the spirit of the much channeled 1960's, not only in the use of retro-esque colors but also in silhouettes and details. The Spring collections, despite having this 60's energy are distinctively modern stories of our times. There is a strong sense of casual ease in the collections, almost a "bohemian" feel to many presentations, punched up heavily with a heavy dose of SoCal/coastal vibe, all done with nary a swimsuit or even shorts. Making a huge jump in the "covet me" category are some of the most serious accessories to come down the runways in a very long time. Its almost as if many of my favorites are mini-collections in and of themselves, and will most definitely make you break into a sweat from either running to the boutique to get them or fighting like mad to get one for yourself!

Here is a look at my "best of" from each presentation, in no individually preferenced order, categorized by city of presentation:

New York
Navigating through the urban landscape is not an easy, everyday task. Leave it to the New York collections to show us how it gets done right. Spring feels (as it should) less severe and when it finally arrives, we want that ease to come over us without having to give up the reins of Fall high style. My choices of New York's finest does this by approach the Spring season almost like a lab experiment, with the focus and play on silhouette and experimental choices. Urban tough looks so good!

BLK DNM

Creatures of the Wind

Creatures of The Wind

Alexander Wang

Kelly Wearstler

LONDON

In my opinion, no one does "fashion mash up" better than London. This season, I was extremely impressed with the London set: high off the world view focus that was the Royal Jubilee and the Summer Olympics, London's fashion group pulled out all the winning stops for me. Color, prints, texture, tongue-in-cheekiness, and downright flying fantasy-- London excelled this season, going for broke and going for gold!

Acne

Christopher Kane

Giles Deacon

Julien MacDonald

Peter Pilotto

MILAN

Italians do sportswear better than anyone else. Wait, make that luxury sportswear, if we can even call what Milan does even that. Its just, simply luxury, and couple that with whimsy and playfulness, and "Ciao Italia...!", Milan makes you want to get dressed in springtime and not flinch or balk at all at the very thought of wearing leather platform Geisha boots in 95 degree heat...

Versus

Jil Sander

Prada

Gianfranco Ferre

Gucci

Dolce & Gabanna

PARIS

If there is a place called Fashion Heaven here on Earth, its Paris. My mind was blown countless times during Paris Week and it is no wonder, the top tier showcase in Paris, no question. Here is where the idea of dark for light weather met the apex and drove it home for me: I didn't expect to see as much black as I did in Paris but it makes complete sense. It's "night-for-day" instead of the other way around (with which we've gotten very used to). It's back-to-core-classics in the tried and true silhouettes that originated in Paris decades ago, all packaged up in a modern re-telling that is both now and new.