"Spring is the new fall!" Isaac Mizrahi mock-declared in an interview a few days before his show, which he had titled Frozen Spring. "I want something that feels like spring, something light and seasonless. It makes me sad to look at the same old tweeds."
Mizrahi's optimistic alternatives for the tweedy season were largely executed in winter whites and dazzling brights: big Day-Glo flower prints; a showstopping fit-and-flare gown called "Psychopeach" that brought Grace Kelly to mind; and lavish gala dresses with less-than-practical petticoats of snow-white mink.
The designer, whose ultra-luxe line is carried exclusively at Bergdorf Goodman, insists he's "not in the sportswear business anymore." Still, the looks that worked best here were the ones that didn't demand a grand occasion. In keeping with the American-casual tradition, he offered a series of calf-length, bell-shaped "skating skirts" with fur-trimmed hems (let's not mention the accompanying white leggings), as well as an easy long gray-jersey dress with beading at the wrist that really hit home.
