Fashion & Style: Showcase for fashion Week by Gina Rivera

Acclaimed fashion designer Richard Chai took the runway on Day One at New York Fashion Week with trending center parts and very soft, subtle waves to leave the focus on his equally soft, wispy dresses in light pastels.

We’ve seen a lot of this hair style recently and seeing it on these runways paired with spring 2015 lines is a solid sign that this look is here to stay for a while.

The center part was popular in the 1960s but this minimalist style has a timelessness that allows it work with a lot of different looks, leaving the eye to focus on the face and clothes, and what better place to do that. This is the beginning of one of the most important weeks in clothing on the planet, followed by sequential week-long shows in London, Milan and then Paris. Designers are here to present their work … and to begin taking orders!

Arguably, hair is not the primary focus of these shows. Clothes are. As always, though, hair and clothes are matched and virtually every detail is scrutinized before these models step onto the runways. Everything makes a statement, including the subdued tone-on-tone variations in color that Richard Chai chose for his runway at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, one of the biggest shows of the week here.

Another designer to choose the less dramatic color variations was BCBG Max Azria. The runway in his Day One show was thick with beautiful brunettes in softly finished hair that hung naturally. The deep rich browns flowed in long layered tresses, with a little more layering toward the front and rounded backs. Hair was parted down the middle, or near middle, and softly done. A portion of the BCBG line, similarly, boasted subtle variations in color with some whites and dessert tans and beige colors. Even when colors were more pronounced, the textures remained relatively soft and feminine.

Not all the hair was so deferential. Luscious locks were interwoven with clothing in designs by Nicholas K., who was among the first to take the runway on Day One. His show included a stunning collection of hoods, wraps, headbands, shawls and pieces of cloth or ribbon woven into braids, twists and waves to create some dramatic, but doable, looks.

Even the glare from some steam punk, expedition sunglasses seemed to compliment the shine from the hair. The earthy, muted colors of some the clothes and wraps paired beautifully with the rich, tone-on-tone shades of the hair, lots of browns but also some blondes paired with stark, bright whites.

Elements by Nicholas K. would be entirely wearable on the streets. The pieces of cloth woven loosely into the hair are so strong but romantic and daring. This is adventure. Hoods and shawls shield us from the cold street winds. These worked with the hair beautifully. Go to his website at www.nicholask.com and you can see that hoods, headbands, shawls, sashes and extreme high-collared jackets have been a big part of his repertoire in recent seasons.