Fall 2014 Ready-to-Wear Christopher Kane

She's a girl named Kate who thinks she's really great, but she's not." The wonderful song that soundtracked's show today was by Chandra Oppenheim, whose single, edgy 1980 release has become a lost nugget of post-punk gold. Chandra was 12 at the time, which surely qualifies her as a child prodigy. That's a category in which Kane can match her, on one level at least (although he'll be a great big kid forever). His huge new collection was yet one more geyser of creativity, a spill of ideas that prodded fashion forward in unanticipated new ways. And if the spill was toxic at times, that was simply a measure of his limitless imagination. For every light, there's a shadow. And vice versa.

Fall 2014 Ready-to-Wear Christian Dior

Raf Simons radicalized menswear physically and philosophically, which is why the fact that he is now helming , still has such a pinch-me potency. The possibilities inherent in the tie-up are enough to make the senses swim.

Today, sight was the first sense to feel the power of possibility. The enveloping, surreal floral bower that was last spring's set had been replaced by an industrial simulacrum, flowers of light radiating in a spectrum that turned red into searing orange (Grace Coddington's hair was a flaring corona) and blue into bright turquoise. Then the light turned white, and hearing, the second sense, surrendered to the martial techno pulse of French Fries' "Bug Noticed"…