NEW YORK, February 7, 2006 – The Chaiken line has its celebrity fans—Alec Baldwin, Julianna Margulies, and Illeana Douglas were all present today—but Jeff Mahshie and Julie Chaiken's fall collection was aimed squarely at their customer, not their front row. The show was full of modern everyday pieces that would work equally well in the office or at the Mercer Bar. (Despite Mary-Louise Parker's recent endorsement at the Golden Globes, they eschewed big-statement evening looks.)

The palette was succinct. Inspired by the painter Oscar Bluemner, whose work is currently on view at the Whitney, it focused on gray, red, navy, and camel. Silhouettes were also kept to a minimum: skinny pants, capes, Eton jackets, and scoop-neck dresses in jersey and wools. The tightness of the show was both its strength and its weakness: There was consistency of vision, but it was also repetitive, relying too heavily on one or two tricks (the frog closures used for ornamentation, for example). Still, with so many frills everywhere else for fall, it was undeniably refreshing to see such a clean collection.

– Laird Borrelli