Donna Karan

Posen was trying for Willa Cather in Oh, Pioneers! Here is Donna Karan doing it right. This is one of the few times a fedora has not looked cliche, against that beautiful country dress, like a waist bundling wheat, posed against the city off-the-shoulder and hat.

So, I promised to end on morning in America. I'm still thinking a little about Paris though (review of the Paris shows is forthcoming). That curious Sarkozy, in some ways so American with his diligent jogging and convinced hard work can create change - and so Parisian, berating a reporter at length for coming too close to his boat while he was on vacation (in New Hampshire). I managed to parade some craftmanship and creativity, home-grown, in this photograph series, but how can we compete with Sarkozy's manic impatience and Galliano's trumpeting sirens? But the younger here have grown up weary of their best and brightest forebearers, who have brought us only a morass of bailouts and embarassments recently. Watch Funny Ha Ha,and a few other mumblecore films, and you'll see we're up to something. It's more personal (but emphatically not solypsistic or egoistic) and subtle - let's call it internally tectonic - from a new generation that is finding better stories in the audience than on stage. In fashion, that means don't despair about the dearth of masterpiece ensembles, because the clever women are finding on the runway that skirt that reminds them of making out on a plastic-covered couch in 10th grade. Watch the young and broke street (especially useful advice for those of you whose image of the young and broke street is still Desperately Seeking Susan), not just the club scene. With that, you may have hope for us yet.

Peter.