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Pretty chic at New York Fashion Week

By Carla Bevan on Thursday 19 February 2009

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Anna Sui A/W 2009, New York Fashion Week

While London might be the home of experimental fashion, Paris the place for avant-garde style and Milan the capital of glitz and glam, New York does high-end, commercial clothing like no other.

And while labels like Marc Jacobs and Zac Posen might be household names, you're far more likely to find clothes by the smaller designers like Michelle Smith for Milly and Nanette Lepore, who both sent their latest collections down the runway today, or Amy Smilovic at Tibi, who showed last night, cluttering up the wardrobes of style-conscious women across not only the US but Europe, too.

Why? Well, they're more affordable to start with, but these designers also know what works in our day-to-day lives. For autumn/winter 09 then, get ready for fabulous plaid wrapdresses (thank you, Nanette Lepore), the perfect LBD (courtesy of Michelle Smith) and beautiful printed maxidresses (a flurry of which closed the Tibi show).

One thing all three labels currently have in common is an obsession with prints: splashy feathers and florals at Tibi (reportedly inspired by a Russian fairytale), peacock prints at Milly and paisley at Lepore.

Paisley also made a splash later in the day at Anna Sui's gothic Victoriana show, albeit it mixed in with plenty of black velvet and lace. Paired with extavagant chokers and stunning hats, topped with ornate, flourishing feathers, the styling of this show meant you'd probably not take it straight from the runway to a night out with friends, but there were plenty of wearable pieces, notably the gauzy blouses, velveteen riding jackets and, on a day when the show came down, some great thermal leggings.