This week has seen some major changes in the city of New York, from a devastating passing of one of the greatest designers, to menswear taking a leading role on the catwalks.

 Further changes will ensue, with the New York Fashion Week making the bold move from under the Bryant Park Tents to the Lincoln Centre next season.

However, the last season under the tents will certainly be memorable, where men’s clothing had a strong impact upon fashion. Even though there were only a few menswear catwalks, the New York designers produced strong collections, rivalling other international menswear designers.

So what was the focus from designers such as Phillip Lim, Calvin Klein and Patrik Ervell? Well plaids were seen everywhere and will be a must in every guys wardrobe for the winter. This is fast becoming an essential and I wouldn’t be surprised if it stuck around for a while! Other features of the menswear collections were leather boots and heavy knits, conjuring up the image of a fearless warrior or a rough mountain man.

Not only is men’s clothing taking the world by storm in the menswear lines, but it is also squeezing its way into the womenswear collections. The contrast of soft, floaty femininity against strong, structured masculinity has really caught the attention of the fashion world at the moment. Diane Von Furstenburg emphasised both genders in her collection; fusing toughness with delicacy.

The man everyone is getting excited about right now also used the idea of blending menswear into womenswear. Alexander Wang simply took apart men’s suits in his mind and pieced them back together on a female silhouette. His shapes and lines were very clean and precise. He used male clothing to influence his designs, producing a strange female beauty which is where fashion is heading in the future. He had support from supermodel Natalia Vodianova, who opened and closed his show. Alexander Wang enthused “Natalia has always been such an icon for me…she’s such an inspiration and she embodies modern beauty”.

Another designer to watch is Catherine Malandrino who displayed her collection on Valentine’s Day in her own unique way. In order for us to better admire her handcrafted work; she displayed her designs on models in a static presentation. The spectators walked around the collection, seeing the clothes up close, which reveals the amount of thought gone into the textures, materials, cut and embellishments. Malandrino portrayed a raw femininity through mixing and contrasting textures, again echoing the male/female style. She was inspired by “looking to the world…everything from different cultures mixed”. It is evident that she has an eye for materials. She is able to drape the fabric and sew it in such a way that it hangs beautifully, enhancing the patterns or embellishments on the surface of the material. Her models were seen fresh-faced and each sporting the fashion-forward top knot.

The designer who took a different route this season was Mulberry. The creative director, Emma Hill, refreshingly opted for a brighter colour palette, avoiding the sombre greys and blacks which governed many catwalks. Taking place in The Library at Soho House in New York, leopards took centre stage, with five life-sized, glistening animals standing on giant sequins. The walls were patterned with (no surprise) leopard print, and guests (including the editor of French Vogue, Carine Roitfeld, and TV presenter, Alexa Chung) were treated to leopard-shaped cookies. This opulence followed through to the garments, where vivid colours, lively patterns, and twinkling embellishments (o and leopard prints!) were the focus of the collection. Hill was inspired by the “Valley of the Dolls” film, English royalty and Hollywood theatricals. She has really developed her designs over the four collections she has done for Mulberry so far and after this collection, has proved herself to be really original. Let’s hope the peak she has reached is kept up for seasons to come!

By Helen Batstone