Now That He Has Your Attention

With a set by the artist Rachel Feinstein and an Oz-like runway sweeping toward the audience, there's no way you can route yourself around Marc Jacobs's talent. He demands that you notice his fashion even when it's not that riveting.

As the designer of both his own label and Louis Vuitton, he is really in the thick of things; you can't be involved with a luxury company much more corporate than Vuitton. Yet Mr. Jacobs has proved with his feistiness and his collaborations with artists that he doesn't have to stick to a formula. His collections can shift from urbane and sexy to cartoony, and he doesn't have to concern himself with explaining his arbitrariness. It's probably wise that he didn't take the Dior job, if it was in fact offered to him. He's in a great position.

For his latest collection, he created a mash-up of textures and patterns: a sunflower-print coat over a lamé-and-pleather skirt; a black leather dress combined with tweed panels and worn with a red paisley jacquard skirt and tinsel-bright socks. There were also narrow trousers. Some of the coats were quite embellished, with embroidery or fake fur, and there was often a stole of some kind covering the shoulders, as if the women under the show's batty fur hats were going to deliver the washing or collect rags.

“Who Will Buy?” is a beautiful song, by Lionel Bart for the musical “Oliver!,” and Mr. Jacobs played three versions of it, including one by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for the finale. There were also beautiful aspects to his imagery: the white filigree set, the optimistic blue backdrop, the sober coats. And among the inspiring fashion looks was a short red brocade mini-dress over a white shirt and cropped black satin pants.

But the visual snowstorm made it hard to see things that were actually new. And it was unclear what Mr. Jacobs meant by pairing fairly lavish clothes with that song.

You don't really associate Donna Karan's style with hats, and I doubt the miniature Cubist fedoras that Stephen Jones did for her show will be pinned on her garments once they reach stores. But the hat imagery was seductive, along with the Dietrich shoulders (what, those again?), and I started to picture her clothes in a private club in, say, Hong Kong, on the wealthy patrons, as well as on the staff. A long-sleeve red jersey dress for the chic wife of a member. A wispy dress in black metallic chiffon for his mistress. A pinstriped suit with a front-slit skirt for a diplomat with a gambling habit. The severe tuxedo shirt and black skirt for the front-desk lovelies. Imagining all this about Ms. Karan's handsome collection was easy and not at all unpleasant.

Vera Wang loves to wrap and drape fabric around the body, and this collection included stoles, a beaded apron and something that looked like the upper part of trousers. The clothes were generally fine, but apart from bicycle shorts, she didn't seem to know what to do below the waist.

The Olivier Theyskens collection for Theory contained a lot of friendly basics, like leather shorts and knits, but it was surprisingly drab and uninspired after his terrific spring show.