Fall '11 NY Fashion Week: Narciso Rodriguez

First of all, the boots  were pointy-toed and extended halfway up the shin, but their most notable feature was that they were flat. There's been a lot of talk lately about kitten heels, flat-forms, and the return of practical shoes, but it's just that, mostly talk. Sticking to one dress silhouette as he did allowed Rodriguez to zero in on fabric, cut, and color. Backstage he said he was looking at different kinds of art, but collage in particular, which made sense when you saw the color-blocking and the way he combined not just hues (midnight, black, lavender, and cobalt, say) but also textures (silk and wool, or chiffon and bands of sequins). A series of red, pink, white, and black printed silk fil coupé shifts, meanwhile, had a softer, more painterly hand. [style.com]