The venue at Prabal Gurung's Spring 2013 show may have been smoking hot (literally, thanks to the lack of air conditioning and a cranked-up smoke machine), but the clothes on the runway were nothing short of breezy. The designer focused on the idea of freedom this season, and thus silhouettes were looser and sportier than we've seen from him in seasons past. The opening looks — softly tailored ankle pants, sheer tunics, tiered chiffon skirts, and airy mini capelets — conveyed that notion of ease to a T.

That's not to say that there weren't plenty of glitzed-up evening looks as well. Gurung is known for that, and to forgo it now would no doubt be a disappointment to the starlets in the front row — Kate Bosworth, Hailee Steinfeld — who have helped to make the designer a go-to for the red carpet. The bevy of drop-waist dresses that closed this season's show (most of which were adorned with feathers, ruffles, and shimmer) are sure to satisfy.

"What girl doesn't love the shiny bits?" asked Edun founder Ali Hewson backstage before her brand's Spring 2013 show, referring to the judicious sprinkling of sequins designer Sharon Wauchob applied to her utilitarian-minded collection.

The sustainable brand's newest offering ranged from olive drab jackets with plenty of functional zippered pockets to flirty printed dresses, camouflage trousers, and bralette tops that were simultaneously sweet and tough. Straddling the dichotomy between those two feelings requires a lot of stretching, but Wauchob accomplished it by pairing girlie flourishes (a bow here, a ruffle there) with hardworking elements like elastic straps and open crochet work that looks like netting. Hewson's beloved sequins married the hard and soft metaphors perfectly: they were applied to the seams on a jacket and as pocket panels on a strapless black dress.

The glamour of Hollywood's Golden Age inspired Jill Stuart to create a richly detailed and elegant Spring 2013 collection. There was no shortage of options for the red carpet in this lineup: sheer dresses with flower appliqués offered a timeless elegance, while a series of silk brocades provided a luxurious sheen. One floor-length gown was covered strap-to-hem in sequins; elsewhere, a sparkly bra peeked out from behind a silk dress in cream. But for all this collection's evening-hours opulence, it had some daytime appeal, too: three very feminine meditations on a safari jacket (one jumpsuit, one trench, and one coat) gave Stuart's woman an extra layer of defense against Spring's chilly winds.

The Olympics may be long over, but that hasn't stopped a few New York designers from engaging in a little fashion gymnastics.

For an editorial titled "I'll Tumblr For Ya" in the October issue of Harper's Bazaar, Terry Richardson photographed the acrobatic stylings of Olivier Theyskens, Michael Kors, Alexander Wang, Joseph Altuzarra, and more. The full spread will be released online Sept. 14, but behind-the-scenes images are already trickling onto the magazine's Tumblr. A few of those images — featuring Wang and Altuzarra getting some serious air — in the slideshow.
Photos courtesy of Harper's Bazaar

After the torrential downpour that greeted editors on the way into the Lacoste Spring 2013 show Saturday morning, nothing could have been a more welcome sight than Felipe Oliveira Baptista's many variations on a plastic raincoat, whose seams were welded shut.

The rest of the brand's 80th-anniversary collection was similarly modern and forward-thinking. Baptista dug back into the house's archives for direction and took particular inspiration from its work in the '80s. A clean color palette of pure white was accented here and there with yellow, pale blue, and pink, while patterns included everything from rows of folded polo shirts to red clay courts and tennis balls arranged in eye-catching stripes.

"I wanted to find a new way of talking about the anniversary," Baptista explained, "but in a slightly quirky way, so I did that through the prints."

If the imagery was quirky, the clothes themselves exhibited the kind of athletic efficiency expected from a tennis brand. Slim-cut trousers, colorful polo shirts, and body-conscious dresses expressed that point, but luxurious pieces like a leather minidress covered in Lacoste’s trademark alligators elevated the collection beyond mere courtwear.

Claude Morais and Brian Wolk have long sung the praises of Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood. Not only have the duo made it their home for years, but they've also dedicated much of their La Vie en Ruffian column to calling out the finer qualities of their favorite stomping ground. It was really only a matter of time, really, before the aesthetic of the neighborhood's hipster denizens made it into their collection.

The designers have always had a thing for posh-meets-punk, and for Spring 2013 it melded together beautifully. This season, the posh came in the form of toile de Jouy prints on charmeuse and chiffon, metallic-threaded jacquard, tie-neck blouses, and that good ol' Ruffian staple: ruffles. The punk manifested in boxy silhouettes, cropped boy jackets, slouchy trousers, swooshing skirts, and seams that felt just a little undone. And for that final dose of dressed-down cool: Chuck Taylors. Those were worn with every look.