For Fall 2008, there was a massive fashion trend where countless designers decided to go for very subdued, even sober color palettes. Consuelo Castiglioni went in a completely different direction for Marni this season. She churned out a collection in catchy, stand-out colors that were, overall, quite quirky.

There were bursts of bright salmon here and there as a pencil skirt or a cardigan. Blues bloomed as ruffle tops or silk blouses. Golden yellows got your attention in a skirt or cropped pants. Quite a few prints also made it down the runway as pants or tops. And though the prints looked a little organic at the start, they began looking more and more structured towards the end. The last printed look was already very geometric with a kaleidoscope of rectangles in different lengths

Once you get past the colors and the print, however, the collection still has a very Marni feel to it. Almost all the pieces fit the models in the typical, almost lumpy Marni way: soft and feminine without hugging too many curves, if at all. Perhaps the biggest element is the matching and layering of the pieces, which contributed much to the final look of the collection. When you see everything from afar, you’ll notice that most of it is comprised of layered and color-blocked outfits. There was also a significant amount of playing around with lengths and proportion – perhaps an important lesson in the art of layering from Castiglioni herself.

As is their usual style, Marni this season isn’t for people who like curvaceous, body-hugging clothes. You definitely won’t be seeing too many of these (if at all) as a celebrity fashion trend anytime soon.

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While it’s true that designer fashion is indeed a luxury for the well-off, there are just some things that only the truly wealthy, only the likes of richly reared royalty and oil-owning oligarchs can afford. This season, Fendi shows that it’s one such luxury, and that you’d better be prepared to pay a lot of zeroes for what they’re selling.

Fur is the first item on the Fendi fashion shopping list, and it definitely had a lot of the material for this season (which is probably why so many of the pieces were really short). Of course, everybody’s been doing fur this season – reason enough for Lagerfeld to take the furry fashion trend several notches up. Fendi isn’t just using plain old plebian astrakhan; several Fendi pieces had fur that had 24k gold applied to the individual hairs using patented Fendi technology. It’s one thing to have designer goods, but having your outerwear double as bling (like the furry gold coat over the brown belted number) is a whole new level of luxury altogether.

Knit was another big (but not as bling-y) item in the Fendi collection for this season. There were several knit tops such as the belted navy wrap paired with the ruffled skirt that fair-haired Agyness Deyn thoroughly worked up and down the runway. But when it’s a simple yet exquisite knit top against patented gold-treated coats, there’s no contest about which one will make bigger waves in the fashion industry – and dents in the checkbooks of the wealthy.

Without looking too much at the details, Lagerfeld’s collection for this season actually looks quite similar to Jean Paul Gaultiers. If, however, you want to tone down the eccentricity and turn the elitism way up, Fendi is your friend for this season. This is fashion you can take all the way to the bank (and the jeweler’s), honey.

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If you’re used to the careful restraint of the previous collections of Alexander McQueen, you’ll be downright shocked at his offerings for Fall 2008. He picked up some inspiration from a centuries-old tree in his garden and a trip to India before promptly whipping up a collection that took all those stories all the way.

A lot of the silhouettes can be identified with 1950’s-era couture. There were huge, stiff hoop skirts and big flouncing dresses that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a prima ballerina. Despite their very sober black color, several voluminous dresses looked magnificent in all their crinoline glory. There was lace and tulle everywhere, contributing to an overall ethereal look for the collection. Fanciful peacock headdresses and glimmering diadems as accessories only accentuated that image. Not everything was as feminine, though.

Severe cuts were also thrown here and there into the collection, such as the fitted cropped peak-lapel blazer over impossibly tight pants. There were also a few jackets that posed very hard, straight lines to contrast with the fanciful details that defined Alexander McQueen for fall.

Because the show started out so monochromatic and borderline gothic in color and design, it was nearly blinding to see the bright-colored dresses that the designer saved for the finale. There was a ruby red dress that looked as if it were made entirely out of red and white ruffles. An off-white dress with a lacy top, an accordion-pleat skirt and white tulle underneath completed that old world feel.

This Alexander McQueen collection is praiseworthy for its daring, if anything. It’s definitely not popular nowadays to be this fanciful with one’s designs. Quite the opposite, the new fashion trend is to be as restrained and austere as possible. This collection isn’t exactly the most commercial, but it does work as art expressed through fashion. Shopping for some casual clothes? Skip McQueen’s this season.

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The popular stereotype for designer fashion involves tight, uncomfortable clothing on tall, skinny models. If anything, the Fall 2008 collection from Giorgio Armani breaks that mold. His new fashion statement for the season is all about loose clothing that flows with the body. It’s been done before, yes, but it’s a refreshing change of pace from the severe, uncompromising cuts that seem to be the runway fashion trend of the season. And his clothes look downright comfortable to boot.

Asymmetric-hemmed silk skirts were abundant in this Armani collection, giving both a feminine look and a luxurious touch to several outfits. Drape was apparently a big focus of the designer for most of the looks, as a good number had multiple layers or draping fabrics all over. There were a few less feminine and more office-appropriate pieces complete with knee-length skirts, but the addition of a beautifully detailed jacket or a bold-colored top (or both) kept the look from becoming too austere. The designer also seemed to pay a lot of attention to the details; there was a wide range from embroidery to fur lining that maintained a luxe appeal for the collection.

Eveningwear was interesting, to say the least. The designer gave a new twist to the 2008 fashion trend of fringe by incorporating long silver strands into sheer wraps thrown over flower-printed gypsy dresses. It resulted in images that were feminine and borderline flirty with the design yet retained a grown-up sophistication with the restrained palette of more conservative colors.

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Marc Jacobs is undeniably one of today’s best fashion weather vanes. Whether the new fashion trend is all about crazy colors or structured shapes, he’s always all over it before the rest of the fashion world has even heard about it. For the Fall 2008 collection of Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs took a very different direction from his last collection.

Whereas Vuitton of Spring 2008 had lots of colors and layers thrown together, this season’s collection looks more grown up and put together. Most of the looks have a decidedly retro feel – something that Dior is also doing, albeit with another decade. Jacobs combined 80’s outfits with a lot of technical stuff that, according to him, should exaggerate shapes. The muted color palette – it’s composed mostly of grays, blacks, browns and a few other pastel colors – also suggest that extra maturity. Even the accessories lost some of their exuberance, with the bags showing branding only on surfaces that were embossed.

A profusion of pleats came strutting down the runway along with skirts and coats in heavy fabrics. Almost all the cuts looked generally in line with the eighties theme: high waists, loose tapered pants and high necklines were all present in the retro style roll call. The pump wedges that most of the models were wearing served as one of the few explicit clues as to the novelty of the collection. It was the flow and movement of the clothes – particularly the skirts – that gave the collection its modern twist.

The eveningwear of this season’s Vuitton maintained the sobriety but brought in more chic with the details. A rather unusual long-sleeved dress and a frizz-collared number provided some highlights to an otherwise tame, technicals-heavy collection.

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