Best fashion

Best eveningwear looks: long
Every woman deserves to feel like a princess just once in her lifetime, and this season, the gowns that came down the runway at Bryant Park went from sublime to the ridiculously sublime. Isaac Mizrahi, Zang Toi, Marc Bouwer, and Narciso Rodriguez all scored high marks for their beautiful designs, as did Peter Som and Zac Posen.

Best eveningwear looks: short
The abundance continued with Chado Ralph Rucci's fantastic grey chiffon tweed dress with artfully frayed edges, Marc Bouwer's black iridescent strapless min-skirt cocktail dress and Jill Stuart's green spaghetti-straped dress with flared skirt detailing. If long, goddess-like gowns ruled for fall, short, cocktail and evening dresses were a close second. Either way, you couldn't go wrong this season with any choice you make.

For him
The winner, bar none, was Jerry Kaye's Perry Ellis men's collection. From casual to formal, he ruled the roost.

Best leather looks for her
Kenneth Cole and John Varvatos rocked the house with the beautifully fitted leather looks for women they sent down their catwalks. Mr Varvatos, who débuted his first womenwear collection at Bryant Park this season, and Mr Cole knows how to make women feel sexy without being overly "undressed"; and their oiuterwear pieces—like Mr Cole's chocolate brown bomber jacket—were essentially bellwether pieces for what is yet to come in future collections.

Best leather looks for him
David Chu, John Varvatos, and Kenneth Cole are in their element here, and we highly recommend all these looks.

Best menswear-inspired looks for women
As long as men and women have been living together, women have borrowed their husband and boyfriend's clothes. For fall, most designers showed their version of that "boyfriend" jacket, and other items—all with a fitted feminine twist.

Best pants
There is only one champion here: Alvin Valley. Enough said.

Best "marching to the beat of their own drummer" collections and designers
Katie Stern for Venexiana (below), Sarah-Jane Clarke and Heidi Middleton and Paula Hian were just a small selection of designers who, in their own way, marched against the tides and delivered a lively presentation. Off the runway, the clothes—stripped of the show embellishments—maintained their individualistic æsthetic. •

Phillip D. Johnson is features' editor of Lucire.

ABOVE, FROM TOP, LEFT TO RIGHT: Isaac Mizrahi. Jill Stuart. Narciso Rodriguez. Chado Ralph Rucci. Perry Ellis: informal to lounge suits, the label ruled the roost. Kenneth Cole. John Varvatos. Nautica. Paula Hian.