The opening look at Victoria Beckham's show was a windowpane plaid coat. She also incorporated more sweaters and knits into her collection, with a nod to mod with some geometric, colourblocked shift dresses. The most unexpected looks were the flashes of bright yellow, including a sleeveless trench; the techno shine she added to pleated skirts that the audience could only see as the models walked; and the long cape-style tuxedo coat. One of the important evolutions for autumn is the softer shoulder, which she used to tweak one of her popular zip-back, slim-fit dress silhouettes. For shoes, she put models in lower kitten heels, made in collaboration with Manolo Blahnik, which was a bit of a surprise for a woman known for skyscraper stilettos.

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Alexander Wang's women simultaneously embodied the relaxed modern and carefully elegant looks, their hood-like grey cashmere collars part of one of the most sophisticated collections the designer has come up with in his career. Furs were opulent, some in the form of sleeves running all the way along the arms, some encrusted with diamonds.

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Military touches are shorthand in high fashion for strength and confidence. Gurung added some exclamation points, specifically citing as his muse a woman in combat. There has been much in the news - and Gurung is a newshound - about the Pentagon's decision to open more on-the-ground options to women and also technological advances in women's body armour. "They're redesigning the whole uniform for women because all this while they've been wearing men's uniform,'' he said backstage. That led Gurung to think about women's empowerment, all the way to women he read about from the Ukraine who are coming together in self-defence against human trafficking. There were smart jackets with gold hardware and some with red-and-black brocades, crisp navy suits, and leather harnesses over stretch-crepe dresses with sexy slashes on the bodice and asymmetric peplums and hemlines. There had to be a little femininity mixed in with the aggressiveness, Gurung explained, because it's femininity that gives women their best tool "to rule a man's world.''

It was that easy: Stuart woke up one day thinking about how stylish British model Stella Tennant and her friends were, so Stuart thought she would create a wardrobe just for them. She aimed to dress an aristocratic fashion risk-taker for all those parties at castles in the English countryside. "I was thinking about the beautiful dinners and the charades she and her friends play, and the great performances they see at the end of the night,'' Stuart said backstage. Her offerings include a plum-coloured halter dress covered in satin flowers, a more tailored dress in black wool with more sharply cut flowers, and a white sheer man-tailored shirt paired with black evening shorts and a full-cut long black coat.

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Take a look behind the scenes look at the Fall 2013 NY Fashion Week.

At first, Hilfiger's looks, staged like a movie-set library, looked like they were built on the Savile Row-styled menswear and Ivy League prep-school uniforms he has played with for almost 30 years. There were houndstooth prints in every scale imaginable - on a coat, turtleneck, tuxedo pants and even a dickie - and probably even more plaid. "Classics receive an unexpected twist,'' was Hilfiger's mantra, putting some newness on the catwalk while maintaining a relatable ease that would appeal to his broad audience. Together on the runway, the collection evoked mod for 2013. The leather argyle pattern shifts and shirtdresses could reintroduce his muses - and fashion icons - Twiggy, Mary Quant and Marianne Faithfull to a new generation.

Posen presented his smallest show in years, taking a breath from a whirlwind few months that included joining Project Runway as a judge. For a designer who thrives on flashbulbs, cameras and frenzy, the change might seem odd, but he said his intimate show at the Plaza Hotel was the best way to sharpen his focus in a collection that was thoughtful and intellectual. "My fantasies about glamour or about society, about travel, all took place here growing up in New York. When you drive by great historical backgrounds, this is where Halston did his first shows, where Oscar de la Renta used to show,'' Posen said. Part of Posen's signature are red-carpet gowns, such as the strapless, draped bustier ballgown worn by Crystal Renn and the architectural peplum gown with cutouts and sharp shoulders worn by Coco Rocha.

The tireless 71-year-old designer, best known for punky prom dresses and a lot of pink, introduced her fall collection as a theatrical exercise video for the Style Network program Betsey and Lulu, which follows the lives of Johnson and her daughter. It was a catwalk of energetic, giggly models in active wear chatting on mobile phones as they waved to attendees, then an exercise routine led by the designer that included running in place, yoga and pull-ups. Rows of pink yoga mats were strewn on the runway, each accompanied by a pair of high-top sneakers, towels and wine bottles. The collection, named BJ Kicks A, veered from the high school dance party looks that she has championed for decades, running toward a junior high school gym class with a lot of cheek. It was an explosion of neon pink and yellow, animal prints and plaids on mini dresses worn over leggings, a veritable visual feast piled over one another.

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Any model will tell you: It's hard to walk down a catwalk. Especially when you're an actual cat. Designer Tracy Reese's autumn-winter show had a guest model, of the feline variety. The cat was supposed to be walked on a leash, but was a bit frightened, the designer explained backstage, and had to be cradled in the model's arms for its one trip down the catwalk. Er, runway. The cat may have been timid, but Reese's designs were the opposite - full of mixed prints and bold colours, like the floral-printed neoprene frock in pink, orange and black that accompanied the cat-bearing model.

Minkoff named her colours after planets and other spacey things. A winter white was "Saturn'' and used for a leather motocross jacket. The colour caramel became "eclipse'' for a leather duffel coat. Minkoff put a twist on the colour-blocking trend that has been around now a few seasons by mixing chunks of different textures instead of contrasting hues. Minkoff's soft-line exaggerated shoulder, instead of the aggressive ones that were so popular on the runways a few years ago (and in the 1980s), also turned up elsewhere.

Designer Felipe Oliveira Baptista presented his Menswear and Womenswear collection. The focus was on colour-blocking and mixing of materials and textures in a similar sense. For example a fabric and leather-like garment might have leather-like sleeves, hips, pocket trim and lower legs.

The room was packed for Max and Lubov Azria of BCBG Max Azria, whose silk print dresses, magnificent furs, and over-sized jackets were full of exoticism. The designers said they drew inspiration from "the beautiful history inlaid within the architecture of Istanbul and the eclectic style of the Gypsies of Southern Europe."