Was it when the ninth silver minidress appeared on a spring 2007 catwalk that onlookers shut their notebooks and uttered a collective groan? Whatever the moment, a sense of fatigue and irrelevance hovered over much of the collections in New York and Milan.

Sure, there had been some terrific exceptions: Marc Jacobs, Narciso Rodriguez, Oscar de la Renta, Marni, Prada, Bottega Veneta. But the fashion industry as a whole seemed to be asking the wrong questions: Was it time, in the breathy words of Justin Timberlake, to bring "sexy back"?...

...No. Do grown women, as much as they may have enjoyed Ken Burns's fine PBS documentary on Andy Warhol and the Factory, actually want to look like Edie Sedgwick? No. Even though five-pocket jeans may be on the wane as a newsy must-have, will anyone really wear a knicker, a genie, a brief? No! It was a disheartening spectacle. Here's the rub: When fashion soars, it is a lovely distraction from the real concerns of the world; when it skids, you just begin to wonder....