NEW YORK FASHION WEEK : Oscar De La Renta AW13

Oscar De La Renta opened with a series of questions - was Galliano involved in the fall collection? Would he be staying on as a designer in residence? Was he even in the building for the New York preview? The PR heads were relatively evasive on all accounts but they did admit that he was in the building for the show. Which was about all the information given. It meant that the fashionistas present had to resort to picking out the influences that Galliano may or may not have given the show.

I normally don't review ODLR as I'm not usually the biggest fan. I must admit that since the designer announced that he would be housing Galliano in recent weeks - I decided to view the collection. I was seriously impressed by it. Vogue makes the point that this is a lot more muted then the previous sexier fall collection of last year that featured leather and shorts but I like it. It had a sort of mature 40s influence to it.

One trend springs to mind instantly when viewing the show - all of the models had their waists highlighted. Coats were nipped in with belts, dresses gave us some serious hourglass and skirts were tight and pencil-ish. There was print although my eyes were focused more on the turquoise flashes dotted throughout the collection.

I'm just not sure if the gnome hats were all go for me though......I think that might need to be something I skip this season!

I did note that if I didn't know this was ODLR then I would assume either Prada or Dior. I noted influences such as the print which lead me to think of Prada. Also the nipped in waists and slight 40s references made me think of a previous Prada collection from, I think it was 2011. However Style.com makes the point that they felt the collection was very Dior inspired with the shapes of the collection echoeing classic dior. However this could have been a loose interpretation as they spent most of their review wittering on about Galliano. It seems the fashion world is more curious then ever about the designer's next move and where he may settle down. One thing is for sure, if it happens to be ODLR then worse things have happened. If he did influence this collection then it just might be the reason I start to care about the label.