SOME designers see life through the pinkest of rosecoloured glasses, others through a delicately cobwebbed keyhole.

Michael Kors, who appears perpertually thrilled to be American, seems to see life as joyously happening Out There — on an Aspen ski slope, by a bonfire on a dusty prairie, on a lake in Georgia O’Keeffe’s Southwest, atop a skyscraper with cocktail in hand.

Kors has always been adept at taking iconic America and transforming it into clothes that resonate with nostalgia and an optimistic enthusiasm for the future. His inspiration is usually a variation on the theme of the lucky life — always moneyed, always honeyed, always American.

For his autumn/winter 2004 collection shown yesterday, Kors concentrated on a handful of hippyish, sporty looks based on American idols.

“From Warren and Julie straight through to Brad and Jennifer,” Kors’ show notes said. “It’s about the mix of high and low.” Low, in this instance, being a pair of faded jeans worn with a lavender lynx fur cape, or a denim skirt with a chocolate-coloured fedora and a paisley silk tunic. Even when the Kors woman is working the groupie look, it’s utterly wholesome.

The appeal has something to do with the shiny hair, the white teeth, the glowing skin. But mostly it’s to do with a certain je ne sais quoi that is forever golden and the opposite of edgy, urban existentialism — and Kors works it to the max.

If there was a lack of nuance in yesterday’s collection, there was an abundance of depth of vision. It was rich-looking enough for the average shopper, cool-looking enough for the rich, young enough for his older customers and grown-up enough for the younger ones.

For Vera Wang, a fashionable life is all about having a great dress. Known chiefly for her minimalist, chic wedding dresses, Wang pushed a more baroque look than usual for autumn with eveningwear in metallic shades that had the same strict, full silhouette of her trademark bridal frocks but a great deal more detail. Her strongest pieces included a fishtailed silver and rose chiffon dress cut to the knee and a gold gown with ruched sides.

Narciso Rodriguez’s look, however, is constructed. His meticulous jackets and dresses are cut, shaped and sewn with a relentless attention to detail.

For autumn, Rodriguez’s signature glacial dresses and suits are warmed up with wool and fur. There was a new sensuousness melting its way into his trademark chill: electric blue piping on a beige dress, satin ribbon around the curves of a pencil skirt, soft capes in pink cashmere or black shearling.

Roland Mouret, a British-based designer who recently began showing in New York, reinforced the slick look for which he is known with “Mouret classics”: panelled dresses, skinny trousers, artfully bedraggled chiffon. The eveningwear was clever, though the organza dresses needed a little sexifying to release the hint of fussiness. But Mouret’s girl knows how to do that.

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