America's sweethearts

Love me, buy me, wear me! New York fashion week is pulling out all the stops. American Vogue, that bastion of fashion eliteness, has erected a giant video screen in Grand Central Terminal so that the great unwashed can watch the shows. American Elle has commandeered 500 yellow cabs to ferry guests to and from each venue. Even "serious" news channels such as NY1 break off from reporting Mayor Bloomberg's cell-phone ban to broadcast runway footage and breathless backstage interviews. It's just one giant love-in over here. You can almost forget that the entire city is on amber alert and may be bombed to smithereens at any second.

President Bush may be pro-war, but the American fashion industry is firmly in the peace camp. Even People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has called a truce. Last season's shows were blighted by Peta protesters storming the catwalk over designers' use of fur. This season, organisers struck a deal with Peta: in exchange for a bona fide slot on the schedule, there would be no more trouble.

The beleaguered American fashion industry needs all the positive publicity it can get. The label that Peta chose to sponsor, Gaelyn & Cianfarani, may not be making it into your wardrobe any time soon.

It specialises in rubber and latex as an alternative to leather, and was a bit too sex-club for most tastes. But Shakira and Bjork are fans, and Steven Meisel has just shot a few outfits for Italian Vogue, so who knows what the future might hold?

Other than rubber, New York has offered a perplexingly mixed bag so far. This is never the city where big trends are crystallised - Milan's the place for that - but New York seems even more tumultuously discordant than usual. Courreges at Marc Jacobs; James Bond at Diane von Furstenberg; puffballs at Alice Roi; Kim Wilde at Luella Bartley; Wild West at Betsey Johnson; wild knitwear at Carlos Miele and an homage to Prada at DKNY.

Possibly the only thing these designers are agreed on is that next autumn is the season of the skirt. If you like skirts, you'll be laughing.

Altogether now: "Ha, ha, ha." Then there is the Steady Eddie camp. The aesthetics of Oscar de la Renta, Michael Kors, Narciso Rodriguez, Carolina Herrera, Bill Blass and Anne Klein don't change much from season to season. These designers don't give a fig for fashion in its transitory, trendy sense: they simply want to sell.

They are hugely popular in America, where women value "easy wardrobe solutions" and are willing to pay more than £39.99 for them at M&S. Predictable they may be, but in an uncertain climate, they are far more likely to sell than an orange miniskirt.

New York's heavyweight triumvirate - Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan - aren't showing until tomorrow, so the picture isn't complete yet. Influential as these labels are, though, it is doubtful whether they will break any big new trends. In an unsafe world, fashion's big guns - if you'll pardon the expression - are sure to play it safe.