Marc Jacobs might not be an Australian, but it seemed almost unthinkable to review the highlights of New York Fashion Week and not include him in it. Jacobs. After all, what Jacobs shows on the catwalk today will be what chain stores are doing next season. He has a knack for knowing how women will want to dress before they do. He also has a knack for reinventing the wheel each season and presenting a collection that is a radical shift from the season before.

Last season everything was dark and sombre in Jacobs’s world, with heavy layering on models who sometimes appeared to be weighed down with large hats. This week, however, spring had definitely sprung. Against a backdrop of rolling hills, Jacobs’s models walked down an elevated bright green catwalk in a collection that was light and airy in a palette of whites, creams, pale greys and black. Where his layering in the past had seemed heavy, here the technique was used to produce lightness.

One standout was an asymmetrically layered dress is pale grey jersey. Jacobs also showed his whimsical side, such as in a horizontal striped off-the-shoulder dress with huge billowing sleeves. Mind you, it took a model like Karen Elson to pull it off.