New Delhi, Sept. 16 -- The New York Fashion Week has been a showcase of paradoxes-clashing soft draping with sharp tailoring and combining pared-back elegance with unexpected details.

The Ralph Lauren show, for instance, proposed a closet that superimposed masculine and feminine touches-some of his tailored looks were styled with bandeaus as opposed to shirts. What's more, he reimagined the trousers featuring wrap-like waists of sarongs. Eckhaus Latta, too, exemplified their masterful take on tailoring with metallicised Italian suiting, which lent a worn out feel to the pieces.

Anna Sui, meanwhile, was inspired by DH Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, and so the collection evoked a subtle boudoir energy-from lace trimmed slips to table...