Garden Fete for Fairies

Ahh, Spring is here at last!

Everything is green: the trees, the grass, early flowers, the thick layer of sneeze-inducing pollen covering the exterior of my car. Spring is a season of mixed blessings. Thankfully spring fashion this season is bit kinder to the senses, with a creative mix of influences that please both the aesthete and the most analytical. Let us count our blessings.

In the Spring the Pony appreciates ensembles of the sartorial cream puff variety: sweet, fleeting and non substantive by design. (Calories be damned!) So it is especially delightful to see the 2008 collections deliver the fluffy goodness. Prada, among them, brought a sprightly Biba-in-the-garden mash-up that equally evokes Studio54, a congregation of woodland nymphs, and the work of tattoo and graffiti artists. Wearable? Perhaps. Fun? Completely.

Eley Kishimoto's Spring '08 Ready to Wear collection presented graphic, fairytale separates of another sort. The pieces look colorful and young without being over-the-top or cartoon. Even the striped socks looked surprisingly dignified, like Raggedy Ann at a Junior League luncheon.

It's always fun to see what this design duo have up their sleeves, and this collection is full of the charming prints and exciting colors for which they are known. If British fashion is the neglected stepdaughter of the international scene, then this husband and wife team have graciously adopted her, sent her to a good school, dressed her in lovely frocks, and bought her a pony. We should all be so lucky.

Luck, or maybe magic, seemed to flow from the folds of Gaultier's sylvan capes and pirate skirts. Feathers, whimsical hats, and even a pipe, made for a well-outfitted band of ravishing rogues.

Olivier Theyskens had a much less campy take on the fantastic with a nearly perfect collection for Nina Ricci. The photo at right is only a hint of the loveliness in from the runway. Beautiful. Elegant. An effortless look, for a naturally stylish woman.