Black's Back Bigtime at New York Fashion Week

Fashion for spring is back in black.

Black never went anywhere, of course — it’s a perennial favorite with the crowd at New York Fashion Week. But in collections shown Tuesday for spring 2010, the look wasn’t terribly sunny.

The nod to the spring/summer season was to offset the black with white and shades of nude, blush and stone, all part of the overall muted look that has dominated at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.

Yet the black wasn’t severe, especially rendered in featherweight fabrics in sheer organza, tulle and black lace. A wave of black swept the runways of Rodarte, Vera Wang, Badgley Mischka and Jill Stuart. It was even at a tongue-in-cheek fashion show for the Snuggie — the blanket with sleeves.

“You’ve heard what the new black is? It’s black,” joked host Ross Matthews, Ross the Intern from Jay Leno’s “Tonight” show.

RODARTE

The ravens rose at Rodarte. With a smoke-filled runway beneath them, models wore outfits resembling the contradictory symbol of darkness and survival.

Even with tiny asphalt pebbles on the ground, haunting music and the smoke, all the drama really came from the clothes. Every garment seemed a cobweb of leather, yarn, ribbons, lace and cheesecloth. Some of the pieces were adorned with crystals, feathers and leather made to look like birdskin.

“They’re incredibly inspiring, and their clothes are always inspiring,” said Kirsten Dunst, wearing a glittery bronze Rodarte dress from an earlier season and sitting in the front row with the likes of Elijah Wood and Jason Schwartzman.

When stripped down without all the effect, some of the major trends of Fashion Week where here: draping, banding and lattice-like leather, among them.

VERA WANG

No wonder Vera Wang has moved her show away from the frenzy at the Bryant Park tents — that atmosphere wouldn’t do the elegance of her spring collection justice.

In her stark white SoHo store, Wang presented sophisticated styles that she said were influenced by the late Paul Poiret, who left an indelible stamp on fashion in the early 20th century. He gave women the freedom to wear looser chemise shapes, and Wang picked up on that: There wasn’t a corset style in sight.

Unfortunately Poiret also championed the harem pant; Wang translated that for modern times in a droopy jumpsuit.

She mostly went for sultry instead of overtly sexy with layers of smoky-colored tulle, sheer black organza and artful, not flashy, embellished jewel details. Metallic pieces were a bit stiff, standing away from the body, while the bike shorts underneath the see-through styles hugged it.

JILL STUART

The models at Jill Stuart had to keep pulling down their very short skirts for fear they’d end up showing more than they wanted to an audience that included Rachel Bilson, Nicky Hilton and the “Real Housewives” of New York and New Jersey.

That tells you a lot about the spring collection previewed Monday at the New York Public Library.

But even if the styles weren’t all to the taste of the finicky fashion crowd, that doesn’t mean Stuart’s increasingly rocker-girl clientele won’t appreciate the black illusion bodysuit paired with an electric-blue leather mini, or the white leather jacket with pouffy sleeves.

And those pink and green foil dresses? Surely they’ll be the hit of prom season.

KAI MILLA

Kai Milla presented her first collection since taking a break from designing full-time for mommyhood, deviating from her usual darker colors, mixing in orange and yellow.

“I wanted to celebrate,” said Milla, who is married to Stevie Wonder and designed an emerald green silk chiffon dress worn by first lady Michelle Obama.

She used elements like beading and cutouts to bring a more modern look to old silhouettes. An orange silk jersey slim-fitting dress had side ruching and formed a diamond-shape in the back. A lightweight black silk jersey dress had cutouts on the side that were trimmed in beads.

J MENDEL

Who needs glitzy embellishment when you can achieve true special-occasion dresses with fabric?

For the new spring J. Mendel collection, presented in an art gallery Monday as part of New York Fashion Week, Gilles Mendel manipulates fabric in seemingly a million different ways to get both “elegant technicality” and “fluid emotion,” his two goals, according to his notes.

A rouge-colored mousselline dress with curved draping, sculptured tulle and an organza sunburst was something to marvel at.

Mendel first made his mark in fashion as a furrier and he couldn’t resist a few summertime furs, including a gray cocoon coat worn with a charmeuse shawl-collared shirt unbuttoned to the navel and a stunning smoky-colored paillette-and-organze skirt.

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Associated Press writer Megan Scott contributed to this report.

9/15/2009 5:29 PM SAMANTHA CRITCHELL, AP Fashion Writer NEW YORK