The fall and winter fashion showings began modestly in London

The fall and winter fashion showings began modestly in London, picked up steam in Milan, sizzled during the first few days of the French shows and then fizzled out by the end of last week. Everything went limp. Visitors to the shows were stunned by too much -- or too little -- fashion. Divergent trends seemed to cancel each other out.

without compromise

At 67 years old, with 44 years' experience in the fashion industry, Giorgio christian louboutinis immune to the nostalgia that periodically infects fashion.

While the rest of Milan fashion week is awash with 70s-style muslin peasant blouses, the designer described his catwalk show yesterday as "a collection that does not look back to the past uncompromisingly modern".

Not that is about to strike out in a new direction. This collection had every signature, from elegantly unstructured jackets and drawstring trousers to pure, balletic evening dresses and quietly chic, flat.

Much of the show had typicallyesque boyish overtones. Models wore boxy jackets and wide, cropped trousers in navy, black and white, their hair tucked under baseball caps which were twisted at the back.

Much sexier, though, were the fitted, low-necked, one-button trouser suits in grey and cream houndstooth and, for evening, backless black or white taffeta tuxedo suits. Evening dresses showed off the craftmanship of thestudio. A flesh-coloured sheath was embroidered from shoulder to toe with leaves and climbing flowers made of blue crystal beads; plunging camisoles were encrusted with jet spiderwebs.

For the finale, the muted tones turned to fiery red, with sequinned handkerchief tops teamed with sheer circle skirts heavily embellished with scarlet beaded flowers.

This was the inaugural show for theTeatro, the designer's 682-seat theatre, which is the centrepiece of the label's headquarters - a former factory turned into a concrete and glass palace.

Tadao Ando, the Japanese architect of the conversion, which is in Milan's once downtrodden but now increasingly fashionable Porta Genova canal district, was chosen by Christian Louboutin for his "beautiful, functional, not too luxurious" style. christian louboutin shoes described the theatre, which accommodates a conventional stage as well as the fashion catwalk, as "a small present" to Milan.

For three weeks, myriad pretty dresses were paraded by myriad ravishing models. At the end, even the most professional fashion watchers could not state definitively that hemlines would descend almost to the floor next fall or that legs would be back on view. For a while in the beginning, it seemed that really long skirts were generally accepted by designers with aspirations to style leadership. By the end of the showing season, the situation was fuzzy.

Karl Lagerfeld had put legs back in the limelight with his authoritative collection for Chanel. He was so persuasive that short skirts no longer seemed the exclusive province of the middle-aged and those reluctant to accept change.

Despite the fashion diffusion, some trends turned up repeatedly, from collection to collection as well as from country to country. Here are some that will influence the styles that stores will be offering next fall.

Knitted clothes have returned to fashion's center stage. Of course, sweaters have never disappeared -- they're far too useful. But it's not sweaters alone that are coming back. The roster includes knitted jackets, dresses, coats and even crocheted vests that carry echoes of the 1970's.

Black is the best color for evening, said Oscar de la Renta, who designed the Pierre Balmain collection. There was hardly a designer, with the exception of a few on the fringe of the avant-garde, who would disagree with him. There are literally thousands of dresses in thin fabrics like chiffon waiting to beckon seductively from store racks and windows next fall. These sheer dresses offering peekaboo glimpses of legs, midriffs and bodices will be supplemented by suits in wool, leather and velvet.

Velvet deserves separate mention, for it is not limited to evening. For daytime trousers, velvet is almost as ubiquitous as denim and tweed. These rich-looking pants are often paired with bright or solemn tweed or flannel jackets. For evening, velvet pants and leather jackets are an important duo. Add a white shirt for a most contemporary look.

The white shirt is more than a fashion footnote. It is an important key to fall dressing. Mr. Lagerfeld let shirttails float over his short Chanel skirts. Gianfranco Ferre tucked them into the waistbands of his long leather skirts at Dior. It is a crisp, clean, useful style, more practical than many more exotic entries in the fall fashion race.

Among the exotic styles are the many ethnic fashions. The time, place and precise culture these clothes are supposed to suggest doesn't seem to matter. The shapes aren't particularly exotic, but the patterns and colors introduce brightness into the mostly sober collections.

Among the general movements discernible in the collections is that fashion is moving away from strictly tailored suits, and a feeling for softness is taking over. It is better, for instance, to mix the patterns of a jacket and a skirt and pants than to have them match. (It is even desirable to mix a few patterns in the jacket itself, like having the sleeves in a different plaid than the body.)

All of this implies a good deal of freedom in choosing clothes next fall.

One of the cheerful and practical bits of news is that designers everywhere have taken care to develop good-looking winter coats. The princess coat with a great flaring skirt (long enough to graze the shoe tops) is a knockout at many collections. Designers who in the past were content to throw a shawl over a suit or offer a raincoat or two have now taken pains with the design of coats. The most arresting are in bright red.

Delicate ankle-high laced and chunky boots with corrugated rubber soles are the footwear of choice day or night. Sneakers are acceptable (especially those with the Chanel logo), but plain good-taste pumps are not. That's the way designers see it.

It was obviously not the best fashion season in Europe. No young Lacroix emerged with a pouf skirt that would sweep the world and invigorate other designers. In Paris, especially, it was not the moment for a great creative breakthrough. Relying on superb fabrics and prestigious workmanship, the Italian designers suffered less of a setback. But they did not aspire too high. And they had Giorgio on the one hand to take care of good practical, classic daytime fashion, and Gianni Versace on the other to cast the die for sexy clothes.

Perhaps it is time for fashion designers to take a cool, clear look at how women are living. It might give their clothes more relevance. American designers, who will introduce their collections next week, might do just that.