story by Zimir Hernandez photos by Aeric Meredith- Goujon The Spring 2012 collection of Victor De Souza displays compelling creativity that engaged viewers with armoresque silhouettes coupled with elegant lines, ruffles, hand-stitched silk ripples, and pleated horse hair. The designs of this collection showcased a special balance of structure and fluidity with the use of satin,organza, and wool.

Rochambeau’s Spring 2012 collection has a medieval sexiness to it. Last spring, we saw button-downs and jackets. In this collection, the designers, Laurence Chandler and Joshua Cooper, took more risks. Vests and blazers with asymmetrical lines fall and drape seamlessly. Pants and shorts are high waisted and wide-leg, accenting the curves and waist of the male figure.

What a nice retreat, after pounding the New York City pavement, to come into a show presenting such bright images of nature. Julian Louie created many of his new designs using photographic images taken while on a trip to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. He then collaged them as prints, creating a fresh green group of garments.

Douglas Hannant’s Spring 2012 collection takes inspiration from 1930′s Shanghai, a time period that is seldom explored, which made it especially enticing to him.

The Reem Acra Fall 2012 bridal collection showcased pleated intricacy, laser-cut origami of tulle and sheer organza (“transparency is the new white,” declared the line sheet), and a judicious use of sequins. Asymmetrical cinching and striations give classic shapes in unconventional ways. Echoes of the recent Ready To Wear collection were present, such as cascading vine motifs, dazzinlg sparkles like rain running down glass, or waves of tears covering the body.

“Frankly speaking, I have to say that I think my sister and I, we were quite naive when we started, which in fact did help us. We are ‘virgin’ so we had nothing that forbid us, there were no borders. We created bags we wanted to wear and there was nothing more than that.” That is an oft repeated truth in the fashion industry. Creating something new and fresh that catches buyer and consumer eyes can, oddly enough, be easier if you don’t know what you’re “supposed” to be doing. Lena Erziak, along with her sister Hasna, is one half of the team behind the fast rising handbag brand that carries her name.

Walking through the doors to Diego Binetti’s Spring 2012 presentation was like walking into a fantasy world. Models dressed in flowing chiffons were on swings suspended from the ceiling and sitting on benches throughout the already unusual Provocateur space at Hotel Gansevoort.

The truest trend to emerge from the Spring 2012 collections shown during New York Fashion Week has been exceptional designers modifying or out and out altering the fundamental nature of the clothes that they produced from the last season to this season. Done right, that approach is an invigorating shock to the system. Bibhu Mohapatra’s Spring 2012 collection was certainly an example of it being done right.

Frank Tell’s Spring 2012 collection combines flowery lace work and luxe leathers that lend to impeccably put together pieces. Leather and lace is an often employed pairing, but do not let that fool you into thinking Frank Tell’s work with them is just another cliche. They may be used often elsewhere, but they are used very differently here.

My first and last impressions of the Norman Ambrose Spring 2012 show remain that the spirit of the artist and stage designer Tony Duquette must have taken up residence in the creative mind of Mr. Ambrose. There is a prominent level of perfectionism in how the seams are pressed, the hems are pressed, the clothes fit the models, and the tailoring is razor sharp. This collection is soigne, slick, luxe, metallic, and displays beading on top of beading.

“Everything starts with the fabric, including colors, but for me fabric always trumps. What I mean by that is, if there is a fabric that is a tactile inspiration and its perfect, but it doesn’t come in the color that fits with the collection’s inspiration, it’s out of there, because that’s what you’ll actually be wearing.”

When I spoke to Mark Badgley and James Mischka moments before their Fall 2012 bridal collection was to flow down the runway yesterday, they spoke to me of the challenging restrictions that are placed on bridal design. After I saw the collection, I think they might have been having me on, because theirs was a very unrestricted, even uninhibited collection. The rules of the bridal market don’t inhibit these men, they push them to greatness. Innovation and experimentation abounded from reworking of traditional shapes to different variations on almost every conceivable type of structure and construction.

The Jad Ghandour Spring 2012 show in the tents at Lincoln Center took a cue from P.T. Barnum. Bolstering the designer’s “safari” theme, two baby Bengal tigers flanked either side of the mini-runway. “It’s a safari collection. It has a 60s feeling” said the designer backstage before the show. Designing for the “femme fatale,” silk satin, chiffon, and tulle were the ring-masters in the menagerie of looks.

Timo Weiland’s Spring 2012 was in general a good collection but it had an uncharacteristic feel to it compared to their very sharp presentations of the past two seasons. There were many strong pieces and the team’s growth as designers surely continued, but the collection had a few pieces that felt flat and disconnected from the rest of the collection. An 60′s style baseball jacket and a men’s floral shirt and matching short both felt forced, and a small handful of other pieces lacked the original spark that has vaulted the young designers to their white hot status.

It’s easy to get lost in the cold canyons of deep downtown New York. At night it can be an eerie place, dark and claustrophobic. Yet even then there are places of light and moments of beauty.