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"  If the fall 2010 collections are any measure, Phoebe Philo&amp;#039;s bellwether debut for C\u00E9line last season turned the industry on its utilitarian ear. Yet, despite all the great separates, the fall shows were renowned mostly for their overall sobriety\u2013an observation that might have been mitigated by the fact that I finally managed to teetotal through 28 and one-half days without the usual survival staples of too much alcohol, pasta, and espresso and too many late-night dinners. That doesn&amp;#039;t mean that there isn&amp;#039;t anything worth shopping for from the more than 500 labels that managed to pack the schedule from 8 a.m. to midnight in New York, London, Milan, and Paris. Qute the contrary. It&amp;#039;s just that the entire experience seemed a little lackluster. Gone were the flights of fancy, the couturelike details, the full-stop gestures. Is it possible that without a veil of vodka, fashion is just clothes?          Tailoring: (L to R) C\u00E9line, Stella McCartney, and Donna Karan Designers played out the season by working two sides of the same coin: smart chic for working women on the one hand and deliberate luxury for bourgeois wives on the other. Even though there was an abundance of great wearable pieces\u2014oversize men&amp;#039;s coats, trousers of all shapes and sizes, and sumptuous knitwear\u2014they came across like understudies who have been waiting in the wings for the star to break her leg. A grueling schedule and lousy weather can always add to the gen\u00ADeral malaise of a sensible season, but after the hoopla of the past decade, we fashionmongers have come to expect some drama at the shows.  Marc Jacobs, Jack McCollough, and Lazaro Hernandez packed a few surprises with their easy-to-wear pieces. Proenza Schouler&amp;#039;s graffiti-print denim and twisted-sister schoolgirl classics certainly got everyone&amp;#039;s blood boiling. Add to that the perfect counterpoint of Marc Jacobs&amp;#039; study in elongated volumes and full shapes in taupes and grays\u2014a &amp;quot;safe&amp;quot; collection that felt new precisely because of its quiet demeanor. I doubt many men will find this Mona Lisa Smile look sexy, but it had most hipsters in the audience swooning for all its simplicity. Now, there&amp;#039;s an idea.          Camel: (L to R) Dolce &amp;amp;amp; Gabbana, Alexander Wang, and Hussein Chalayan As everyone knows, simple isn&amp;#039;t easy. It takes skill and talent to render plain interesting, but even to those under the influence, the season, from Proenza Schouler and Marc Jacobs on, just seemed, well, sober. Burberry had some of the most beautiful shearlings and boots anyone had laid eyes on, and Dries Van Noten&amp;#039;s romantic take on military fatigues mixed with romantic florals made the top of most editors&amp;#039; must-buy-now lists. (I put my name in for two sweatshirts and a fatigue-sleeved camel jacket the day after the show.) Balenciaga featured innovation and imagination galore with Ghesqui\u00E8re&amp;#039;s futuristic take on ladylike dressing. And the magnificent volume of all the full skirts at Louis Vuitton and Prada were appealing. But to be honest, I&amp;#039;m not sure those demure, postwar shapes are going to be big sellers. I love the postwar look, but do I really want to be burdened by all that extra fabric just to feel like I&amp;#039;m wearing something new? And what of the price? Many heralded Jacobs and Prada&amp;#039;s Mad Men shapes as sounding the death knell for &amp;quot;skinny girl&amp;quot; fashion, but both designers denied plus-size anything was on their minds. For Prada, her flirtation with ruffled busts, thick knits, stiff laminates, and A-line shapes may sound forgiving to women with large hips, but a lot of fabric covering a large surface is just that: a lot of fabric. Not to mention how difficult it is to pull off a bustier for everyday dressing. The same goes for Louis Vuitton. Laetitia Casta and Elle Macpherson, who opened and closed Vuitton respectively, may have bodacious bodies, but they&amp;#039;re not the size 10\u201312 that most American women identify with. All runway images: Imaxtree The good news is the return of everyday classics such as camel, day suits, skinny pants, trench coats, and &amp;#039;40s tailoring. But where were the surprises? When the highlights of the season turn out to be fatigues (also deftly handled at Junya Watanabe) and fur coats (who didn&amp;#039;t do fur? And why was no one protesting?), well, one does get to wondering what&amp;#039;s up. It just made one reflect that Alexander McQueen is going to be more sorely missed than ever. His final collection of medieval gowns was the perfect requiem for the dream world it seems few others are intent on creating. In short: I&amp;#039;m all for wearing the practical, but if fashion doesn&amp;#039;t ever transcend the workaday, women are going to be bored.          Fur: (L to R) Chanel, Burberry Prorsum, and Oscar de la Renta The whole experience also raised the question: Are fashion shows (egads!) \u00ADd\u00E9mod\u00E9? Celebrities packing the front row feels more than a little pass\u00E9. And though insiders forecast that a return to strictly business sans stars in the front row would be a relief\u2014Marc Jacobs even declared celebrities uninvited at his show, but fair enough, his clothes always steal the spotlight anyway\u2014it turns out the show really is more exciting with all the lights, cam\u00ADeras, and sparkling A-list glitterati. Simply put: There&amp;#039;s just a lot less to gossip about. Leave it to Chanel, with its 265-ton iceberg trucked in from the upper reaches of Swedish Lapland, to save the day. That ice floe raised more questions about carbon footprints than commentary on Lagerfeld&amp;#039;s collection of fake-fur Chewbacca coats and sweaterdresses that, even without The Iceman Cometh set, warranted praise on their own merits. The move did generate 72 hours of back chat, however, thanks to a French-mannered freeze-out at the Grand Palais the night before, when in the same space but on the other side of the Chanel partition, YSL held its show of startling crisp bourgeois novitiates (though Stefano Pilati denied there were any religious references at play. Everyone is in denial!) to a frigid, blue-lipped audience. Oh, those French and their courtside contretemps!           Knits: (L to R): Marc Jacobs, Balenciaga, and D&amp;amp;amp;G The day after Chanel, the chatter continued at Louis Vuitton: While guests sat \u00ADinside a musty, bubble-shaped conser\u00ADvatory and a fountain sprayed water 10 feet in the air, onlookers marveled at the gossip that the iceberg had to be trucked back to Sweden because the French would not allow the Swedish ice to melt on French soil. Why hadn&amp;#039;t they just let Vuitton have it? Oh, those French and their environmental policies! Turns out the iceberg wasn&amp;#039;t banished, but no one knew where it was sent to melt. The least they could have done was make snow cones out of it as party favors. New York had more spirit to boast of than her sister cities. Young designers Prabal Gurung and Joseph Altuzarra showed smartly shaped suits and coats that had just enough volume in offbeat places\u2014arms and hips\u2014to give them an ultrasophisticated vibe most women would appreciate, while Reed Krakoff debuted a line of chic utilitarian separates that in its most innovative moments played with the season&amp;#039;s newest floor-sweeping skirts. His models looked cool, calm, and collected: three c&amp;#039;s that equal an automatic A in my book. In Milan, while Miuccia Prada mused on the bust and Mad Men secretaries, Raf Simons paired plaids and tailoring with a youthful aggressiveness that was appealing. But the city really belonged to Fendi, which had one of its best shows in years. The patchwork furs and skirts reminded me of Hanna Schygulla\u2014by way of the &amp;#039;40s via the &amp;#039;70s\u2014and were drop-dead gorgeous. Seductive, alluring, day-for-night appropriate, and not an obvious retro-reference in sight. Bravo, Fendi!          Accessories: (L to R) Fendi platform and bag, Stella McCartney heel Paris seemed to have one highlight a day. Riccardo Tisci had some expertly cut elongated men&amp;#039;s jackets and per\u00ADfected the season&amp;#039;s new slim pants. Nicolas Ghesqui\u00E8re at Balenciaga broke new ground with his technological feats in fabric and design. Knitwear played a big part in everyone&amp;#039;s collection, and this is most likely where women will want to put their pennies. That and a great camel coat. Lanvin had one of the best. There were lots of other oddball trends, such as fringe and velvet, which looked right again, and minis seemed to be the counterpoint to many lowered hemlines. In the end, this is a season in which you won&amp;#039;t make any mistakes and will get a big bang for your buck, no matter what you buy. Just go for one or two big-ticket items and save your impulse shopping for another day. This season is all about the practical. You may get a little bored with your closet, but chances are, you&amp;#039;ll still look great.          Fatigues: (L to R) Junya Watanabe, Fendi, Marc by Marc Jacobs "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/fashion/a12198/fall-2010-runway-report/>