Strong fashion appeals to two hopelessly intertwined elements. To truly work, it must catch the eye and it must speak convincingly to the body. Now that the long calvacade of the Milan/Paris, London /New York Fall shows are concluded and the knee jerk reactions (oh what a horrible season) have been executed, retrospection and reflection has isolated a significant shift in style culture. The most powerful fall/winter looks are the ones that opt for an extravagant and melodramatic spirit that on the runway frequently burnt the eye in an unpleasant way but will have a marked effect on stylish young bodies this winter.

The minimalism that seemed so seductively utilitarian and shrewdly salable just a season ago is beginning to feel joyless. For rich older women the uniform of spare units in sumptuous fabrics cut along lean lines - will be eternal - but for the cutting edge, it is of all things, opulence , that has captured youth's restless imagination.

Opulence is beginning to look avant-garde, and avant garde in the mid-90's means millennial, charged as it were with that fin de siecle crackle of the decay necessary for change.
But before fashion reactionaries and retro-maniacs start rejoicing let it be clear that this is not an endorsement of the Oscar De La Renta look. The opulence we are speaking of here is not wedding dress/couture fantasia . This opulence is dark and sinister and whispers "decadence ". It is an ideal that can be found at any price point on the fashion pyramid from Kanae and Onyx's luxe rave jackets to Casaer Galindo's fervid ball gowns to Yohji Yahmamoto's self referential cocoon coats . This new breed of opulence is admirably versatile and oftentimes extremely subtle.

In Paris, Helmut Lang, decade defining maverick that he is, actually touched on it a season earlier than everybody else. The damaged opulence of that Spring show with its white lace dresses pitted against crimson stockings that first stung as an ugly bloodclot visual was actually speaking of a new interest in the romance of texture . Though this season he has been lumped with customary laziness in that terribly uninpired "military chic" clique, his pursuit of this romantic thread for Fall, yielded a collection informed by the art of the "knowing detail". Those intricate cuffs on the end of his blouses, all that visual play on those hems and collars and hidden seams, that is the essence of modern opulence . At Lang's shrewd price points this designer is well on his way to cornering the cutting edge market in the 90's.