New York Fashion Week

At Marchesa, a journey in time and color:

Designers Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig at Marchesa say they have no trouble thinking of ideas for each new season. "Georgina will call me in the morning and say, 'I've had a dream, I've had a thought, we're gonna do this,'" Craig said in a backstage interview. "The ideas just flow." Added Chapman: "At the end of the day we have our DNA in the clothes, that we're very true to, and we enjoy it and we laugh." For their spring collection, the designers - red-carpet regulars - focused on what they called the journey of a day, from sunrise to twilight to darkness.

On the runway, light pinks - for sunrise - yielded to silvery blues and silvers, perhaps for dew. There was gold, to evoke sunlit wheat fields. There was black, too, of course, for deep night. There were florals galore, some fringe - as in a tiered fringe column gown in blue tulle - and of course lots of lavish embroidery. Chapman and Craig established their brand more than a decade ago, but they say they still haven't tired of working together. "In fact on Saturday night we had a girlie sleepover," Craig said. "We did," agreed Chapman. "We sent the kids and husbands away, since we had to work. We had some wine and a good giggle."

Brandon Maxwell's cheer squad includes Lady Gaga:

Gaga stood up and led the adulation at the end of her former stylist's show Tuesday night. Maxwell, who launched his company last year, has already dressed first lady Michelle Obama twice and won a prestigious award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Gaga, Naomi Campbell, Uma Thurman and Zendaya are just a few of the celebs who have worn him. How did he do that in such a short span?

"I have such great friends and family," Maxwell said in an interview. When he decided to become a designer himself and build a business, "they really got on board and fully supported me." For fashion week, the Texas native stuck close to his core aesthetic, with folded and piped bodices that curved and hugged, a cape-back jumpsuit, pleated trousers and deep V necks and halters in satin and other elegant fabrics. Some of his tops were cropped and tiny while other looks offered plenty of coverage.

His 60-year-old mom, Pam Woolley, attended the show and wore a black outfit with big bell cuffs that fit her perfectly. Gaga also wore Maxwell - teeny tight black shorts with a matching crop top, showing off her long blonde high ponytail as she sipped Champagne in black-rimmed nerd glasses and later stood and clapped from the front row when Maxwell came out for his bow.

Michael Kors has a message for spring: Get happy!

The designer put Rufus Wainwright on his runway to belt Judy Garland tunes as models walked in bring florals and looks in classic navy and white. Kors said in an interview he was thinking about that old chestnut, "'She's a real dame,'" ala Barbara Stanwyck and Katharine Hepburn back in the '40s and Kim Basinger in the '80s.

"These women were sly and feminine but they were definitely in control," Kors said. He delivered that attitude in sharp tailoring of shoulders and cinched waists, mixed with things like a wide-belted trench coat with an asymmetrical hem, pleated palazzo pants and shoulder-to-wrist rows of ruffles on the sleeves of one collared, see-through button-down blouse.

"Something that catches the breeze," Kors said. Kors, bending to the "see now, buy now" trend, made some looks immediately available, but most of the collection he called timeless, the "opposite of fast fashion." That was true of navy blue coats, day dresses and sparkly black eveningwear. It might not be true of little bra top and romper sets in browns, or oversized sleeves flopping over hands. Impulse buy or investment, the fashion seasons are officially blurred, Kors said. "More and more we see that our customers don't pay attention to the seasons anyway," he said. "People wear boots in the summer, sandals in the winter. People travel. There's no time of day or night."-Agencies