Best Amid the Blur

By dawn on Sunday, I could remember only two styles each from the collections of Joseph Altuzarra and Alexander Wang. From Mr. Wang it was a poncho and a pair of black leather pants; from Mr. Altuzarra, it was a fur-trimmed nylon parka and a slinky plaid dress. As it turns out, that was enough to appreciate what these young designers were trying to say about fall 2011. Any more would be redundant. My short-term memory of Prabal Gurung’s collection, also on Saturday, feels like a quarter rattling around in a cup. Mr. Gurung created such an exotic apparition of romance, with patterned black stockings, corsets, ostrich feathers and trailing bits of chiffon, that I couldn’t get my arms around a thing. Then I learned, après the event, that his muse was old Miss Havisham, and I suddenly felt the way you do when a man breathes hot air on your neck — and you never saw him before in your life. Don’t worry: I’m not turning into a basket case over this stuff. I actually thought Mr. Gurung (let’s deal with him first) showed some gorgeous dresses once you got past the seductive effects and stupid hosiery. One of the dresses, on Karlie Kloss, was in crimson washed-silk faille with one sleeve, a slightly raised waist and a full skirt. Although the dress resembled the offhand drapery of Donna Karan or Alber Elbaz of Lanvin, it had an appeal of its own. Other winners were a crimson sheath in wool with an open, asymmetrical neckline; a sleeveless, full-skirted dress in superlight black leather with a hand-laced bodice; and a simple (for him) dress in layers of vermillion and fuchsia silk chiffon with a handkerchief hem and a high, gathered neckline.