Made in Manhattan at New York Fashion Week

A marching band plays at the beginning of the Marc Jacobs show at New York Fashion Week. Picture / Reuters

The most fabulous thing about fashion is that you never quite know what's around the corner. As the audience at the Marc Jacobs show scrambled for their seats in the dark (it began a mere 35 minutes after it's scheduled start time - surprise!), they could not have expected what was to come.

Instead of Elise, Lily or Gemma emerging in their first outfits, out high-kicked a high school marching band, complete with big bass drums, trumpets, trombones and even a piccolo or two.

Resplendent in blue and white uniforms, they filled the catwalk before breaking into a suitably upbeat yet perverse rendition of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit". It was one of those moments that forces the most hard-hearted front-row crone to whoop with delight.

This light-hearted timbre permeated much of New York Fashion Week, as designers across the city unveiled their spring/summer 2006 collections in clouds of cotton voile and chiffon, coloured fog-grey and primrose yellow, pale blue, pink and lilac.

There were sunny prints, chocolate-box bows and dancing skirts, shimmering brocade and shiny plastic. Ever the rebel, after such a brash start Jacobs continued to explore his melancholic side.

Still experimenting with proportion and silhouette, this time around the look was crisp and a touch formal. Pinafores and pea jackets, stiff-as-a-board skirts and school-uniform knits in navy, pale grey and brown alluded to convent girls as seen through the lens of film director Tim Burton.

There was a charm and innocence to the collection which borrowed from the early archive of Yohji Yamamoto, yet the end result was no less magnificent.

For his second line, Marc by Marc Jacobs, the designer once again offered an Eighties vibe, referencing cult labels such as Pineapple, Parachute and Willy Brown's Modern Classics. It was an eclectic melange that worked nonetheless: the leggings and layering of the dance studio, the zips, press-studs and straps of the street punk.

Colour was equally at odds: rose, lavender grey, creamy white and pale blue, offset by navy and black. Especially good was the fine-ribbed knitwear.

An invitation can sometimes give a clue as to what one might expect to see on the runway. Diesel's lacquer black invite with red tassel and golden dragon suggested Japan. But in reality it was more Pearl Harbour. Think Kate Beckinsale in pencil skirts, wrap kimono tops and kooky cocktail hats, or military-style denim jackets with fringe epaulettes and forage caps.

Throw in a few sexy Josh Hartnetts in Boys Brigade cadet jackets, white sailor pants and dog tags for good measure, and even if the styling was sometimes a little heavy-handed the sum of the good parts was intoxicating.

There was a nasty surprise as the finale played out at the Diane Von Furstenberg show, when part of the lighting rig fell into the audience. It was a shame because, up until that point, Furstenberg's colourful collection had all the hallmarks of being a winner at the cash desks.

Along with her now familiar wrap dresses, this time cut in brightly coloured jersey, there was a new shape - egg-like Empire line dresses that were worn with cute hand-knit cardigans. But it was the paintbox colour and splashy patterns that made this collection a hit.

Of course, Furstenberg's dresses are never going to change the direction of fashion (and why should they?), and the same can be said of the designs of Brit Alice Temperley, who debuted in New York this season.

Women can't seem to get enough of Temperley's dresses. She described her collection as a mix of "Ancient South American ornamentation and Shakespearean fairy tale".

For that, read Hampstead 1971: maxi dresses, yoked with crochet and lace, tribal deco knits, the odd jacket here and a hammered gold sequin there. The queue for the waiting list is already stretching up Ledbury Road W11.

Although the idea of the Luella girl "mixing up uptown luxe and downtown attitude" was as tired as a fashion editor after a day of back-to-back shows in the heatwave that hung heavy over the Big Apple, the designer managed to keep the look fresh.

Think Pop Art on the poop deck meets Sloane Ranger - Edie Sedgwick takes a trip on HMS Pinafore, all matelot stripes, sailor pants and plastic anchor jewellery.

Ostrich bomber jackets, giant sunglasses and skinny trousers tighter than Olivia Newton-John's in Grease harked back to the 1980s. A cropped black leather studded motorcycle jacket worn over a tweed hacking jacket and city shorts was reminiscent of the bourgeois Hermes aesthetic, as designed by Eric Bergere circa 1984.

And still the Brits kept coming. Matthew Williamson added some new jackets in filigree leather and soft knit to his familiar dresses in patterned chiffon and panelled satin.

Better were the black jerseys with trompe l'oeil beaded chains and flower necklaces. Roland Mouret, who is now one of the hottest tickets of New York Fashion Week, softened things up, adding draped jersey toga dresses that were part Madame Vionnet, part Jean Cocteau to his hourglass tailoring.

Chiffon robes that were a cross between a kimono and a housecoat looked delightfully Blanche DuBois.

The heroine of the Proenza Schouler show was a dead spit for Catherine Zeta Jones in The Mask Of Zorro, wearing cropped jackets with plunging shawl collars, shown with the pair's new calf-length roomy dresses or ultra-skinny pants.

While the collection of breezy cotton voiles and linens, and burlap-coloured wheats, smokes, silvers and white looked pretty enough (especially the ribbon lace decoration), its inspiration appeared too close for comfort to the most recent collections of Marc Jacobs and Yves Saint Laurent.

There was more voile, lightweight linen and tulle at Donna Karan's DKNY presentation, cut into doll-like dresses, sashed at the waist with stiffened bows or cut high on the bosom.

Grosgrain silk and threadbare damasks in deep olive and rust added more structure and a certain richness to the collection.

Not only did Narciso Rodriguez move the venue for his show (causing several fashion editors to dash across the city), he also changed his silhouette - for the better.

Rodriguez let out the seams on his signature corseted contour and instead offered a gentler look. Washed cottons, linens and silk satins further mellowed the outline of tank-tops, full skirts and even suits.

Evening wear followed a pyramid line that fell away from the body in layers of dreamy silk voile. As ever, the designer was sparing with colour, adding just a hint of lilac, grey, ecru and silver to his monochromatic palette.

The result? A breathtaking display that proved you don't have to make a big show to surprise people.

With several of New York's major players including Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan still to show, there will no doubt be more fashionable twists and turns in store.

And if the promise of impeccably good taste fails to rock your boat, there is always the tease of Gwen Stefani's L.A.M.B. catwalk debut, scheduled to close the proceedings.

Even though the peroxide pop queen has filled her high-spirited videos with wacky Westwood, Galliano, Chalayan and McQueen, nobody can really be sure just what she might bring to the New York party.

- INDEPENDENT