Zac Posen, Venexiana and Pamella Roland were a few of the designers who refused to let the somber tone of fashion week and the nation keep them down. They all came out with guns-a-blazing and gowns-a-flowing.

The glitz and glam were far from limited to the star-studded front rows, as the runways were transformed into Oscar red carpet previews. Classic met modern in a fairytale way that earned oohs and ahs now commonplace among the audiences of these designers.

Posen displayed a confident woman whose affluence is created, not inherited. Venexiana channeled Audrey Hepburn at the ball with trademark lavish designs and attention to precision. Roland marveled with a revamped modern woman who we would pay to watch traipse through a metropolis as often as Carrie and her girlfriends.

These three designers, through separate approaches, reminded us that in order to reach the high end, the designing must begin and end with high quality. Here, we have quality at its highest.

by Rebeccah Milner