NY fashion week offers glimpse of spring wardrobe 

NEW YORK - As the New York Fashion Week wrapped up on Thursday in its new Lincoln Center home, fashionists across New York and around the world got their first glimpses of the spring 2011 collection from cutting-edge designers.

Muted colors

Black is no longer the dominant color on the runways of the New York Fashion Week. Perhaps customers need a lift from the depressing recession. White is the new black, accompanied by naturals including chalk, ivory, eggshell, parchment, cloud, smoke and sand.

Von Furstenberg, who typically favors bold colors, went for a slightly quieter palette of pale yellow, green and rust. Watered-down shades include salmon, peach, mint, butter cream and baby blue. Khaki, navy and primary red also are strong, while knock-out orange, fuchsia and cobalt are the season's feel-good surprise.

Floral fantasies

The weather in New York may be cooling, but at the New York Fashion Week, spring is undoubtedly in the air. Flowers, those sure signs of spring, sprouted up all over New York Fashion Week runways.

Donna Karan's DKNY collection saw models romping the runway in turquoise florals and cherry reds. Marc Jacobs tucked giant flowers into models' hair. Flowers also bloomed in the new collections of Tracy Reese and Jenny Packham.

Special effects

Carmen Marc Valvo, Tadashi Shoji, Badgley Mischka, Monique Lhuillier relied on special materials previously seen at European haute couture houses. Some fabrics were woven with 3-D textures such as honeycomb or cross-hatching.

The most dramatic was dimensional petals with cloudlike effects. Also of note were artful collages, solid-sheer combinations and pieces covered with intricate embroidery. Sometimes materials shimmered with metallic threads and beaded fringe. Many outfits combined several of these special-effect fabrics.

Knee-length skirts

Donna Karan, Marc Jacobs, Carolina Herrera, Vera Wang were among those who featured the new-again longer lengths. Fashion pros have declared that longer hemlines are the hot new thing.

Some designer dress even reached the ankle, clinging to the models' long-limbed bodies like fancy nightgowns. Meanwhile, designer Prabal Gurung dropped his hemlines below the knee and, on occasion, even below mid-calf.

New York's Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week's Spring 2011 season kicked off on September 9, 2010. This year marked the weeklong event's debut at Lincoln Center. In previous years, the tents at Bryant Park have hosted more than 200,000 visitors twice yearly since 1994.

The New York Fashion Week is one of four major fashion shows held around the world, along with those in Paris, London and Milan, and features all-American and avant-garde creations by talents like Marc Jacobs, Donna Karan, Diane von Furstenberg and Alexander Wang.