Tory Burch on Fantasy Island

Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesTory Burch spring 2012.

Fast Fashion

Eric Wilson’s posts on the runway shows.

There’s always been a sense, when walking into a Tory Burch store or into her Fashion Week presentations, that you are arriving at the “Fantasy Island” of fashion. You half sense that Mr. Roarke will tap you on the shoulder at any moment and turn you into an Upper East Side blonde with a car and driver, at least for the day.

Ms. Burch had her first formal runway show this morning in the glass-walled lobby of Alice Tully Hall, where that sensation was heightened by the swirling piano notes, the singing in French, the sound of crashing waves. The collection, with its vintage print dresses and soft-shouldered tweed jackets, looked a little lady, and a little accessible at the same time. A creamy skirt with a ripple of blue could not have been more than six inches long. It was as if the models were saying: “Come, walk with upright posture and join me for a blowout. You will fit right in.”

Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesTory Burch spring 2012.

And then the show ended, and I couldn’t find my non-existent driver, and I saw the same snippy security guard who had scolded me for having the audacity to walk in through the front door, instead of a side entrance, not that he stopped Stephanie Winston Wolkoff. He just stood there, smirking.

Anyone who thought that Ms. Burch’s collections were just a higher-priced version of J. Crew would have been convinced otherwise had they seen the J. Crew presentation that followed at Lincoln Center. The J. Crew designs, by Jenna Lyons, looked rather trendy, with the Pop colors in loosely woven cashmere sweatshirts, and a blue-green combination in a waffle-knit thermal shirt with loose, high-waist trousers. It’s not that the clothes weren’t good looking, nor commercial, but they did not offer much of an escape.