By far my favorite new designer I was introduced to during New York fashion week was Alice Palmer. Based in Glasglow, Alice has studied heavily in textiles, specifically the knitted variety. She received her Masters from the Royal College of Art in 2007. Alice presented her work at the Nolcha Fashion Week, as a part of the UK Edition that was held on the second day.

Alice’s knit SS09 collection truly invokes a sense of play. The color palette is bright and colorful, mixing cool violets with punchy teal, magenta and purple, with the occasional black and white number thrown into the mix. Hemlines were anything but straight, all of the designs embracing the asymmetrical. Alternating rows of color are spread throughout, but the real art of the pieces lie in their structure. Within the knits, fabrics pucker out playfully, creating a wonderful landscape across the body. Often these projecting points will merge across the garment itself, forming funnels, peaks and caverns of cloth. The results are pieces that feel so much more than simple dress – they are pantone environments, just begging to be explored.

Palmer’s style did not stop at simply the garments, but extended to the accessories as well. The show displayed the array of her necklaces, bracelets and hats that Palmer created as well: bold, geometric pieces created with carefully interlaced thread. The models were also decked out in fantastic woven spats, worn slipped over their heels, varying in length from ankle to knee. I am a sucker for spats, and I love the idea of socks being worn over shoes – composed of fine threading and strong rounded ends, these managed to be both delicate and streamlined.

I had the opportunity to speak with Alice after the show. Not only are her designs lovely, but so is she. She was both friendly and modest about her work. This is a designer I look forward to keeping my eye on.

You can find more of Alice’s work on her website, here. I have already begun gazing upon the lookbook, longing for one of her sweet little violet numbers…

As I have said previously, my favorite shows by far during Fashion Week were the smaller shows, highlighting up-and-coming fashion houses and independent designers with talent bursting from every seam. By far my favorite shows were hosted at Nolcha. Nolcha is a global fashion industry network that works to introduce designers from around the world to the world at large, and Nolcha fashion week is a presentation of selected designers work to a national audience.

Nolcha shows run a bit differently than your regular tent show. For starters, besides the main show, the location plays host to numerous smaller, independent designers that display their collections in a gallery setting. It is quite pleasant to walk around before and after shows, and find yourself surrounded by even more stunning work than simply the show itself. Nolcha also varies from a standard show in that each show hosts multiple designers, varying from three to roughly a dozen. As fashion shows tend to happen absurdly fast, I feel this is an excellent variation – who ever complained about having to see more great fashion?

Nolcha kicked off this season with three designers of varyied talents: SARAR (high-end menswear), Eva Zissu (handbags and accessories) and Royal Sunday (street style). Of the three, SARAR is by far the most established brand, having been in the business for over 60 years. SARAR is Turkey-based company that was established in 1944 by Abdullahman Sarar, specializing in elegant, finely made menswear. Though this company has had a rich history, the last few years have been particularly developmental for them as a brand. In 2005, SARAR launched their CSS brand to a more middle-income audience, and have also opened their line to include women’s wear. Over the last few years they have opened numerous flagship stores worldwide, the most recent in Manhattan. This Nolcha show marked their first ever fashion show.

Simply put, SARAR makes beautiful clothes. Not only is each piece exquisitely tailored, but the materials used in their creation are pieces of art in their own right. Rich, tactile tweeds, wool, and cottons and silks dominate in this collection, the result being a suit that is less a garment than a companion, a piece that is sure to last in both quality and style for the next 10 years.

This timeless style and quality also translated into the women’s wear line, whose pieces were feminine and appealing, while being sturdy and well-formed. The central area of attention in most pieces were the necks, which were decked in Victorian-reminiscent ruffles, high collars, bows and ties. There was a sense of propriety and modesty in these pieces that was simply delectable.

Eva Zissu was shown after SARAR, and her bright, vivacious handbags proved an interesting counterpoint to the classicism of the previous collection. Former model, turned buyer, turned boutique owner, recently turned handbag designer, this Caracas native can whip up a bag as hot as the South American sun. Built heavily on animal print and unique leather, these bags are not for the faint-hearted or demure dame. Sizes were big and bold in flat, envelope-thin clutches and massive duffels as models strutted out with no less than three in tow, sporting matching vests and cowboy hats. With bags so striking, it should only be a matter of time until every celebrity with a bit of spunk is carrying one of these hot little numbers.

The final collection to be displayed was Royal Sunday, a Swiss design label launched in 2006, innaugurating its entrance into the U.S. Market through Nolcha’s show. Royal Sunday touts that its items that are all hand tailored, finished with unique metal accents, and intended for a young, fashion-conscious generation. True to its word, RS’s line did have a number of intriguing metal accents. I particularly liked the metal studded elbow patch adorning a leather jacket, and the grommets used as a form of decoration on t-shirts and slacks. With any sort of embellishment, there’s always the risk that the “look” will take second stage to the “effect” – which I feel did occur in many of these pieces. It just feels like a lot of the outfits are vehicles for the effect being presented, rather than standing as strong designs in their own right. However, they are a still a very new label, and if they can hone their clothing designs into as sweet a trick as their embellishments, we’re gonna have a contender on our hands.

Aw, what can I say about the Doucette Duvall show? I will say this, that my most surprising lesson from Fashion Week was how much more I thoroughly enjoyed the smaller, independent shows to the large-scale tent shows. Not only did the shows feel much more intimate and gratifying, but the work in them really blew my socks off, particularly the Doucette Duvall show, and the Nolcha shows, which I will reporting on in the next few days.

The show took place in Rockefeller Plaza, which immediately made me and several other attendees curious, as the plaza is not known for having an area to accommodate a catwalk. Upon arriving, we quickly discovered why one was not necessary: the label had made the decision to have the models stand in place, and the audience to move. The room was exquisitely designed with gold-gilt framed photographs of the collection, and a few lovely pieces of furniture for the models to pose around. In order to guide the flow of traffic, green apples had been placed along the floor, creating a delicate, delicious footpath. Everything was sweet and novel about the presentation, from the adorable foot socks worn by many of the models, to the tiny, bite-size cheeseburgers and fries that were being served as hors dourves throughout the presentation.

The collection itself was simply breathtaking. Classic forms were implemented and subtly upgraded with exquisite details of bows, scalloped edges, cloth roses and careful ruffles. These details provided soft, feminine touches that were perfectly suited to the tried and true cuts. Fabric prints were either floral or striped, which immediately brings to mind the french millinery period for me, though there was something extremely Americana and uppercrust to the feeling of the collection. I was very pleased to see well-spaced florals in the prints, rather than the jammed-up florals we have been seeing in the past seasons – there is something so much more delicate and timeless about these than the current trend to jam as many flowers into as small a scrap of fabric as possible.

The collection felt like it perfectly captured the moment of prepubescence longing for womanhood – outfits that felt innocent yet utterly sexually appealing – “Lolita” immediately comes to mind, which I always felt was positively wrong term for those ridiculous doll outfits worn by so many Japanese cosplay kids. Anyone who has read “Lolita” (which is an absolutely AMAZING book, and I highly reccommend), knows that THIS is the sexiness Nabakov writes of – that divine Americana innocence of the young girl trying to climb into the skin of womanhood.

The choice to have the models stand in one place was an excellent one. There was something so fitting about the outfits being caught in leisurely tableaus rather than rushed by the eye upon a catwalk. The coquettishness that resulted from models posing for numerous cameras focused on them by passerbys only aided to that sense of shy innocence, resulting in the perfect impressions of the costumes “in their natural habitat”. It also reminded me of a prom or dinner party, with young girls being the the somewhat unwilling subject of photographs and attention thrust on them by relatives. The apples were also the perfect accessory: what better model of America, and also of temptation.

Stephanie Doucette and Annebet Duvall are big participants of environmental sustainability in their line. They manufacture their entire collections in New York City’s historic garment district, and as well as contributing proceeds to Build it Green. Each collection they include a “little green dress” : a piece utilizing pre-existing fabric and trim as a reminder of their commitment to “Madame Earth.” I am not sure if the green dress on the left is that dress from that collection, but a part of me thinks it might be, and it is certainly the most fitting, as it has “Earth Mother” written all over it, and is one of my favorites.

I have never been one to like things overstated – give me a feather to a sledgehammer any day of the week. And the thing I love about this collection is how subtle the grace in the pieces is – how it accomplishes making the woman wearing them look “dressed up” without being “dressed up” – which to me is the ultimate goal of fashion, creating a second skin that is intuitively suited to the wearer. It’s even more inspiring to know that such lovely garments a coming from a line that is only 3 years old. Keep your eyes on Doucell Duvette – they will continue to make utterly covetable outfits, mark my words.