Should you be shopping around for a mantra to carry you through the loops and turns of fall—the most radical fashion season in a long, long time—you could do a lot worse than this: "Get a sense of proportion to gain a sense of perspective." From Marc in New York to Miuccia in Milan to Karl, Nicolas, Olivier, et al., in Paris, designers are constructing spectacular, convention-be-darned clothes in fabulous new shapes, with an unorthodox sense of volume and silhouette.

Fall means allowing all manner of coats and dresses to billow around your body. It means knowing when to supersize from the waist up and downsize from the waist down, or vice versa. It means loving that your hems are floating skyward while your feet remain firmly down-to-earth in weighty platforms. It means having the nerve to try something new and then delighting in the realization that fashion hasn't been quite this exciting, or so much fun, in some time.

"Blow Up," by Mark Holgate and photographed by David Sims, has been edited for Style.com; the complete story appears in the July 2006 issue of Vogue.

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