Sally Singer, Vogue Creative Digital Director

"If it sounds like a comic mess, please know it’s anything but funny. The lifeblood of fashion is relevance—cultural, sociological, emotional—and without it, well, there’s just schmattas (and we all have so many of them that we now buy books about how best to say goodbye when the joy is gone). In my view, the most compelling collections of NYFW were those that paradoxically focused less on the consumer (“what she needs,” in retail parlance) and more on doing something interesting and true to the spirit of the designer/brand. I start with the premise that no one who is buying designer fashion needs anything. What she wants, though, is something else entirely: to be inspired, surprised, amused, provoked, dazzled. “She” might need a shearling or a pair of sturdy boots—and Lord knows there are lots of them for Fall 2016—but who really wants what they need? Does the heart work that way? And so consider instead the reworked wonders at Eckhaus Latta; the flower-strewn frocks and ruffled boots at Rodarte; the swaggering coats and gorgeous gowns at Marc Jacobs; the best-in-baggage-claim ensembles at Hood By Air; a sparkly car-wash number at Michael Kors; strapless brocade cocktail at Oscar de la Renta; really, really big jeans at 69 . . . Was the oversize camo bomber lined in fluffy pink fur at Alexander Wang relevant because it walked a runway that was dripping with skater/stoner/stripper chic—could a collection be more zeitgeist?—or because it seemed perfectly Alex: adorable and edgy and just kind of fun?"