Last September, when most of us were eyeing chunky knits and winter boots, fashion critics and cognoscenti witnessed something of a whiteout at the Spring 2011 collections. First, New York designer Alexander Wang gave black the cold shoulder after seasons of making it his signature and instead embraced white as an opportunity to go lighter and brighter. In her review on Style.com, Minal Mistry declared the looks "as fresh as cannonballing into a pool in late August."