New York Fashion Week Day 6: Gap's soda-sipping models and confusion at Kors

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Globe Style's Amy Verner is in New York covering Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week until Sept. 15. Look for her reports daily.

As models for the Gap presentation on Wednesday leaned and reclined against bleached blocks, bopping to the electro beats or slouching with eyes glazed over, assistants holding clipboards and wearing headsets came and offered them refreshments. Not glasses of champagne, mind you, but cans of soda with multiple straws so they could share the drink without sharing anything else. It could have been worse; what if they were dressed in fall puffer jackets and trapper hats? But when you're standing under hot lights for over an hour – even in lightweight multi-coloured maxi-dresses and mauve skinny jeans – every slurp helps.

By day 6 of New York Fashion Week, things begin to get fizzy (sorry, fuzzy). Did I see that triangular segmented burnout dress at Ports 1961 or J. Mendel? (Answer: Ports 1961.) Is there really so much spring fur or am I just losing my mind? (Answer: Anna Sui showed marabou jackets and stoles and J. Mendel – whose designer Gilles Mendel comes from a family of furriers – accented gowns with fox and goat boleros and vests, bleached snowy white.)

And did Michael Kors really call his collection Afriluxe and include deliberately torn "distressed" merino sweaters at a time when famine is plaguing much of East Africa? (Answer: Yes.)

There was a lot to like about Wednesday's lineup, which began with Kors and ended with Proenza Schouler, where Jack McCullough and Lazaro Hernandez ever so lightly treaded on safari soil with loosely interpreted animal prints.

Soft meets strong at Ports 1961

The shapes were strong at Ports 1961, now overseen by Fiona Ciabani, sister of long-time designer Tia. These shapes were also soft (a peachy short dress with open draping on the back) and very, very hard (extremely sloped wedges in colour-blocked neon and square cuffs that looked like some kind of desk accessory). Tailored jackets were fastened with tubes of neon rubber, a material that Ports has used in the past. It was a fun touch, although I doubt it would look as good untied. A white shirtdress – totally classic save for the double collar and "cubism" sleeve – was flawless. The same cannot be said of printed monochromatic leggings with a pointillism effect that could have been high-fashion Olympic attire.

J. Mendel salutes Dorothy Draper

Mendel excels at taking one inspiration and running with it. This season, it was Dorothy Draper, often dubbed "America's first lady of design." But instead looking back to the 1940s, he looked forward to how that aesthetic remains relevant today. Through this filter, his collection offered an ultra clean palette of black, lime (there it is again), opal and purple iris that popped as if bathed in black light. There was a distinctive verticality to the pieces, with fabric applied lengthwise and often slit to create movement and reveal a stretch of thigh. Folding and asymmetrical techniques and a multi-coloured cross-hatched pattern were reined in with an unadorned black belt. It was all very tasteful with just enough newness to excite.

Michael Kors's desert decadence

I assume a vacation to Africa motivated Kors to focus on ponchos, belted sarongs and blanket skirts (he mentions high-end Lebombo Lodge in the show notes). But in a season where so many designers seemed to channel his streamlined jet-set sportswear, this theme felt like an anomaly. To Kors's credit, there is something desirable about loose, worn natural fabrics that allow hot winds to hit the skin and the effortless style of the indigenous people. I just remain unconvinced that leather patchwork shifts and desert decadence was the right look for right now.

Phillip Lim strips down, flies high

Far fresher was the theme conceived by Phillip Lim who took something as pure in form and function as a kite and explored its "freedom and fragility." From either the front or back, tops flapped above their intended edges. Pants with sides unzipped from the top and bottom billowed as the models walked, a natural air-circulation technique come summertime. Kite tails were incorporated into tops between sheer panels or simply sewn together to reveal slits of bare skin. Lim has always done laissez-faire well but this season he stripped away more than usual and opted for barely any embellishment. There was one print best described as spotlights as viewed from underwater (the result being somewhat of an abstract floral). Only when the models took their final walk around the warehouse space did I notice that the sandals (both flat and stacked heel) all featured some element of silver or plastic. I forgot to look down that whole time; indeed, it was as if I were really staring up at a collection of kites.