New York Fashion Week Last Looks: Yesterday's Runways at Rosie Assoulin, Zero + Maria Cornejo, 3.1 Phillip Lim and Carolina Herrera

New York Fashion Week Last Looks: Yesterday's Runways at Rosie Assoulin, Zero + Maria Cornejo, 3.1 Phillip Lim and Carolina Herrera

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Weird wearables are what Rosie Assoulin does best. Debuting her first collection only a couple years back, the industry newbie has been carving out her own niche and gaining steady momentum with her whimsically far-out designs.

Photo: Nordstrom Instagram

Granted, the girl got her start under Oscar de la Renta and Alber Elbaz, and with an arsenal of eye-catching design tricks from those two, her ascent to emerging designer darling is hardly surprising. Incorporating hints of Oscar's luxe fabrics and Alber's new-wave silhouettes since the start, Assoulin has managed to create an aesthetic distinctively all her own.

The American designer worked to manifest a Fall collection removed of any singular narrative, a method that's likely to catch the eye of millennials and fashion risk takers like Leandra Medine (lucky for Medine, the two are pals). The result? An unexpectedly well-balanced store of duds. Cue the crisply tailored three piece suit worn with just a velvet choker, standing it's own amongst a sea of super wide leg trousers and their matching jackets (whether it be an army green tiered crop or fuzzy cream trench), while single-shouldered, bell-sleeved wrap tops and layered diamond-shaped velvet halters introduced the transition to more innovative silhouettes.

Larger than life ruffles were the standout of the evening wear pieces, carefully tiered and paired with one-shoulder fisherman knits and cropped capes. Expect closing looks like the caped red jumpsuit and voluminous backless peplum gown to show up on the red carpet before too long...

Photos: InDigital

Phillip Lim rang in his 10th year at the helm of his own brand with a nod to independence and being a boss.

Striking that balance between assertive and fashion savvy work woman has long been the calling card of Lim, who delivered yet again Monday night sending out a storm of military femmes for Fall. The popular fall hues (you know, vintage-tinged yellows and oranges alongside army greens and deep blues) were worked into an interplay of luxe, vibrant velvets and tough, stapled-at-the-seams military wear.

Such and armed influence allowed Lim to work within a new realm of androgyny, making even his most masculine of past-season looks seem feminine compared to the engulfing Glenurquhart check parkas and quilted strappy jackets. But don't think the designer fell into the same soldierly mold seen elsewhere on the runways. No, this collection was clearly influenced by The Land of the Rising Sun, embodied in the sequined ginko leaves that almost managed to catch your eye before the neon pink hue of the jumpsuit they embellished. He even managed to take fringe to the tough side, re-inventing the same look with an abundance of straps that tucked, weaved and billowed from the bottoms of layered vests, multimedia jackets and quilted, columned minidresses.

SHOP: current season 3.1 Phillip Lim

The reigning queen of romance brought in the reigning queen of modeling to open and close a show that took old school glamour into the future.

Maybe her designs aren't the first to pop to mind when thinking of modern designs, but that's not to say Carolina Herrera hasn't experimented with structure and pattern in the past, albeit conservatively. Her showcase Saturday at the Frick introduced a serene sense experimentation, not withholding the designer's signature romance. Karlie Kloss opened the show in a '40s silhouette frock reinvented with a plunging neckline, while classic tweeds were worked into slouchy piped pantsuits (also note the crisp white '70s power suit complete with matching ankle-length trench), melding retro and modern day workwear together. Etherial silks dusted the marble floor, never without their own innovative fur topcoat, while layered, sheer hemlines peeped out under short hemlines. Rounded shoulders, stand out pockets and 3-D paillettes were about as futuristic as it got, with the designer returning to her roots to close out the show with a draped Grecian gown.

SHOP: current season Carolina Herrera

Chilean-born Maria Cornejo took us back to her roots with a nature-centric Fall collection laden with the designer's acclaimed contemporary design m.o.

There's a level of simplicity that strikes you in the designs Cornejo imagined for her Fall collection, an ease in the flowing silhouettes and earthy palate of dusty browns and forest greens all inspired by the freedom of being outdoors. Then comes her signature punch of je ne sais quoi that enthralls the most edgy and inventive of dressers. While trendy fringe-front knits first caught the eye with their South American prints, it was the soft leather onyx cap-sleeve vests that grew from roomy to oversized, belted obi coats and slender pebbled leather skirts that will stand the test of time. Split-level layering was the standout of the show, with impeccably wrapped skirts over slim silk jumpsuits, Chilean-inspired ponchos atop long shearlings vests and mirror image jackets cocooning their smaller counterparts.

SHOP: current season Zero + Maria Cornejo

-Emma Ranniger

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