3.1 Phillip Lim

Here comes the sun! This season Phillip Lim gave his imaginary muse a name—Soleil—and designed a collection fitted to her summery personality. Despite evidence to the contrary, Lim made winter seem a cheerful affair, with brightly colored patchwork shearlings, peppy cold-weather pastels, pretty collage print dresses and button-down tops. What's not to like? Apparently even Soleil has some dark moods, however, and Lim's show was the better for it. If the upbeat clothes were very appealing, the ones that came out later, in deeper colors, had a moody poetry that added dimension to the collection. Of particular note were the knits, with their waterfalls of irregular ruffles. One ruffled sweater, in navy, made for a very convincing evening proposition when paired with Lim's nicely judged silk-satin wrap-over pant. As is typical for 3.1 Phillip Lim, the individual pieces here made a stronger statement than the collection as a whole, and this show was chock-full of additions to Fall's must-have list: The lace-up boots, one of those shearling coats, a baggy trench, a mid-calf skirt in lavender and aubergine…. Lim is keeping his Soleils happy, making stuff like that; it's not clear he needs to do more.