NEW YORK, February 10, 2006 – "I like to reinvent myself, it's part of the job," said Karl Lagerfeld a few hours before his first-ever New York show for the Lagerfeld Collection and Karl Lagerfeld labels. And we like to watch. Despite the late hour on the last night of fashion week, a high-powered crowd of editors, retailers, stylists, and photographers turned up at a Chelsea ballet studio to see what the business' busiest impresario would do next.

In his program notes, he promised "tailoring, sculpting, shape-making, and mixing proportions with different influences and moods." Toss in layering, and the description fits. You could argue that there was too much of too much to take it all in—one editor observed how refreshing it would've been to see the female models in the men's more-simply-cut-and-presented evening suits. But several items did stand out, a few for the wrong reasons (no one but a model can pull off that bunching of fabric at the bust and hips), and a few for the right—including a brown wool trench silk-screened with an abstract camouflage print.

Besides cool slouchy leather boots and not-ready-for-mainstream fur cuffs, there were precious few extras. Here's to hoping that next season Lagerfeld invents some of his signature irresistible accessories for these new collections.

– Nicole Phelps