NY Fashion Week takeaways: Floppy hats, gold lamé and loud prints

Throughout New York Fashion Week, I kept waiting for the harem-pant moment. For those who haven’t been following Downton Abbey (pity, that), an early episode of the hit show ends with Lady Sybil, the youngest daughter of the aristocratic Crawley family, showing off the latest fashion circa 1913: exotic pantaloons in the style of Paul Poiret. Cut to the facial expressions of everyone in the room, enhanced by the swell of strings; such awe was something I longed to feel at some point along the eight days and 50-plus shows that made up my fall/ winter 2012 NYFW calendar.

So was there anything as comparatively unprecedented, as utterly shocking? Not exactly – and I’m not sure fashion is even capable of that today (incidentally, pants seem nowhere near as popular as dresses and full skirts). Marc Jacobs came the closest with his outer-limit eccentricity and underlying wistfulness.

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