a new direction and era

The New York Fashion Week circus has pulled up its tents, moving uptown to Lincoln Center from Bryant Park, where it was held for 17 years. The tony new location is more grandiose; unlike its predecessor, this canvas tent resembles the marble of the nearby Metropolitan Opera House and New York State Theater.

Fashion insiders hope the artsy setting will incite publicity, generating better sales for designers. "Being at Lincoln Center is clearly a new direction and era," said Fern Mallis, the event's founder.

"I think the industry is in a transitional phase," she said, gesturing at the vast space around her designed to accommodate thousands of buyers, fashion journalists, trend spotters and an equal number of party crashers. "Who is this for?" she said, then answered, "The consumer."

If designers want to sell clothes, they'd better create wearable fashion that will endure and look stylish for several seasons, she noted.

Almost 100 official shows are being staged at four venues within the big Lincoln Center tent, including an out-of-the box idea called The Box where crowds stand within feet of a runway. But probably twice as many maverick shows and presentations are scattered across Manhattan.

Presentations, more popular than ever, are usurping the old-fashion runway hoopla, which is too slow-moving for the Tweeting fashionista accustomed to warp-speed gratification. The hottest young designers are renting big, empty spaces and hiring a dozen or so models to stand still while the audience circulates around them. Less formal than a cocktail party, it's a happy-hour atmosphere with beer or wine.

On the traditional runway and off, the designers who showed Thursday met Mallis' challenge, creating recession-proof clothes for next spring. Richard Chai and Bensoni (the design duo Benjamin Channing Clyburn and Sonia Yoon) showed easy-to-wear neutral colors including chalk, beige, taupe, sand and foggy gray.

The ultralight fabrics may be a response to this summer's record-breaking heat waves. Ruffian's collection by Brian Wolk and Claude Morais used silk mousseline; while LNA designers Lauren Alexander and April Leight used cotton gauze for a collection of simple, basic pieces, often layered.

The prints that have been so successful for the past few seasons - animal, tribal, digital and textured - show no sign of slowing down. Christian Siriano, a former Project Runway champ turned fashion-week regular, was an equal opportunity print-user, incorporating a manipulated Asian digital scenic print on shorts, jackets, one-shoulder cocktail dresses and billowing, bubbled evening gowns. His big finish gown was like a frothy red storm cloud swallowing the model as she dragged a long train behind her. The flamboyant finale seemed appropriate to the high-brow new venue.

Debbie Dickinson, a 1970s star model who attended one show, liked the new location. "Lincoln Center will give fashion elegant status," she said. "It's the platform fashion deserves."