Fashion: Getting Back To Basics

Dresses drawing attention to the back with intricate, eye-popping and whimsical details were part of more than a dozen spring '09 presentations at New York's Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week last week. "Every season, there's a different erogenous zone," said Carmen Marc Valvo, who unveiled a black gown with thin straps that merged in a basket weave on the small of the back. Nanette Lepore's red dress had five vertical strips that played peekaboo with the model's back. Veteran Max Azria and wunderkind Narciso Rodriguez revealed gowns that can be likened to mullets: business in the front, party in the back, with thick straps flowing in all directions. Andy and Debb, a Korean husband-wife duo who made their debut appearance on the New York catwalk, presented a cream dress with a row of diamond shapes. "The idea that New York is a melting pot—that applies to fashion," says Joe Zee, creative director of Elle. Backward thinking only applies to dresses.