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Fashion Wrap Day 8

As New York Fashion Week came to a close Thursday, Oscar de la Renta brought high drama, Michelle Obama-favorite Naeem Khan laid on the jewels, and Mick Jagger turned up in New York. See pictures of the highlights of Day 8.

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Ralph Lauren's clothes have always lived comfortably in the intersection between preppy sportswear and Western twang, and the collection he showed Thursday morning trotted both themes out in spades. Classic metallic evening gowns were paired with low-slung leather belts, and thin suits were topped with fringe.

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Fringe was everywhere at Lauren's show—even on his wife, Ricky, who gave the designer a kiss as he took a bow.

Richard Drew / AP Photo
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It was still Scott’s usual mix of really sleek fitted clothes, but with a dash more color than you might have seen from the former stylist in seasons past. There were velvet blazers embroidered with flowers, a perfect pink sheath, a white and navy blue variation on the wrap dress, and a whole bunch of eversotight, sparkly evening gowns. “So sexy!” squealed Wendi Murdoch, who was another one of the VIPs who made it down to the meatpacking district for the luncheon and presentation.

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New York Fashion Week came to a close Thursday afternoon with a torrential downpour that was met by attendees of the Oscar de la Renta show with about as much enthusiasm as a plate of carb-loaded food. But never mind the inconvenience. It was a terrific show, filled with exactly the type of '50s-inspired lady-like clothes for which de la Renta is known.

Jemal Countess / Getty Images
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There were boucle suits by the truckload, scores of dresses embroidered with flowers, a billowing white ball gown covered in polka dots and one crinkled lime green dress that looked sort of like the world's best bedspread.

Jemal Countess / Getty Images
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After the models were done showing the evening looks and de la Renta had come out and taken his bow, Sarah Jessica Parker turned around in her front row seat to mouth one word to her Fashion Week compatriots: "Beautiful." And it was.

Jemal Countess / Getty Images
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Gilles Mendel presented a sheer and dreamy collection Thursday, with miles of neutral silk chiffon expertly draped across models like Grecian goddesses. The pleated dresses, which grazed ankles and skimmed thighs, came in different shades of pastel. They were accented, however, by bright orange ribbon heels and matching lips. Waists were cinched with lady-like ribbon—but the silhouettes were dramatized by the sumptuous fur, for which Mendel is famous. Boleros and jackets of lamb and fox fur lent romantic evening dresses a textured edge.

Rob Loud / Getty Images for IMG
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The theme of Isaac Mizrahi's spring show was Xerox. The veteran designer teased out this idea over an ethereal collection of dresses and gowns in muted patterns that looked like faint copies of the original. The fabrics on his deceptively simple pieces were all light and flowing, adding to the collection's ghostly feel. One dress had a picture of a black-and-white bow printed across the chest, as if it had been Photoshopped on. Mizrahi's finale look was a stunning floor-length gown in a subtle pink flower pattern, like a fading memory—almost as if we were watching a dusty Kodachrome instead of the live runway show.

Don Emmert, AFP / Getty Images
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Some designers take their inspiration from Halston. Others from Schiaparelli. This season, the main thing on L’Wren Scott’s mind was a trip she took to the Serengeti earlier this year. “It’s just vastly open space with the most magnificent skies you’ve ever seen, sunsets like you can’t believe, just textures and lightness. And I wanted the collection to convey that feeling,” Scott said shortly after the models finished walking around the third floor dining room of the Standard Hotel, where she held her presentation for guests including Daphne Guinness, Terry Richardson, Andre Leon Talley, and Scott’s boyfriend Mick Jagger. Did this mean a whole lot of traditional African garb? Not exactly. 

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Schooling his peers in the proper way to do sexy minimalism, Calvin Klein designer Francisco Costa showed a soft, sleek collection of simple sheaths in ivory washed silk and breezy double faced crepe jackets. It was one of his best collections yet for the mega-brand and harkened back to the streamlined simplicity Calvin originated in the early 1990s.

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Jolts of color came in a tomato red washed silk shift and pale blue short shifts.

Fernanda Calfat / Getty Images for IMG
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Julianne Moore, Kerry Washington, Isabel Lucas, and Katie Holmes took in the show from the front row.

Jason Kempin / Getty Images for IMG
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Indian-American designer Naeem Khan has long been a darling of the social set, but he exploded into popular culture last fall, when Michelle Obama chose a gilded strapless gown of his design to wear to the Obama's first state dinner. His clothes meld old-world influences with Western modernity. Closing out Fashion Week Thursday night, Khan showed a sparkly, flashy, sequin-encrusted collection—the perfect antidote to the gale-force winds that blew through New York. A few dresses appeared to have been designed with the first lady in mind, including a relatively—for Khan—understated piece with a khaki safari top tucked into a floor-length white beaded skirt. Most looks were straight out of Monte Carlo, stitched top-to-tail with rhinestones, sequins and paillettes.

Slaven Vlasic / Getty Images for IMG
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Almost anyone who works in movies will tell you that for all the glamour, they’re pretty hard to actually make. But few have anything on Rodrigo Cortés and Ryan Reynolds, the director and actor, respectively, of “Buried.” Shot in 17 days on a budget of under $2 million, the entire movie takes place inside a wooden box, a coffin that Reynolds’ character gets buried alive in while working as a contractor in Iraq. On Thursday night, as folks began dismantling the tents and designers took their breathers, a fashion-heavy crowd headed to the Cinema Society and 2xist’s screening of the movie. Courtney Love, Olivia Palermo, Adrien Brody – as well as Reynolds, and Cortes – were all in the house. We asked the director what the most difficult thing was about making such a strange little thriller, and he said, simply, “everything.” By the time the film was done shooting, Cortés said, “Ryan’s skin was peeling off, his back was totally bruised, he could barely move. Basically, everything you see happen to him onscreen happened to him in real life.”

Evan Agostini / AP Photo
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The more flair the better for Khan, who topped off each outfit with what looked to be several pounds of jewelry per model. The crowd, including many of the designer's socialite clients, went wild for the collection, applauding and leaping out of their seats when dresses appeared on the runway. At the very least, here is one designer bucking the austerity trend—no simple, single-color shifts here.

Slaven Vlasic / Getty Images for IMG
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At L.A.M.B, the final show on the final day of New York Fashion Week, the front-row hoppers were running out of steam. "I love Gwen Stefani," one editor said. "But I had somewhere else to be tonight." Still, Lincoln Center's massive theater filled with Gwen fans, and a half an hour after call time, the show kicked off. Stefani debuted an African-inspired collection this season, and sent models down the runway in loud tribal prints, drop-crotch parachute pants, and jumpsuits that all seemed modeled off pieces from her own closet. Her husband Gavin Rossdale, and son, Kingston, sat in the front row near Omarion and The Spice Girls' Mel B. and danced along to M.I.A., Sean Paul, and other hip-hop that blared during the show. As Gwen completed her final lap around the stage, she grabbed Kingston, which filled the room with "awws" as the crowd went wild.

Frazer Harrison / Getty Images for IMG