Conservative styles can also be grandmotherish

It's clear that many fashion houses are lobbying awfully hard for the color gray as a new basic, although brown is still around. Of course, there's always the risk that sensible dressing can be boring.

"Gray, gray, gray. I'm seeing it in every collection," says Riccardo Dallai, owner of Riccardi, on Newbury Street christian louboutin , who is in Paris on a buying trip. Indeed, the popular design company Costume National showed more than half of its collection in gray: gray dresses, skirt, pants, coats, and even suede boots.

While gray, which ranges from charcoal to almost off-white, may work in corporate America, it's still pretty drab and austere (not to mention unflattering and masculine). And the trend comes just as women are becoming confident enough in the workplace to display their femininity via earth tones, pastels, and brightly colored suits.

Conservative styles can also be grandmotherish. Full, pleated skirts are one new trend sure to disappoint some of the younger set. Many of the skirts fall below the knee. But don't worry: Designers like Eric Bergere have inserted some revealing slits amid the pleats. (Bergere's collection sent a mixed message: ruffled shirts and tops buttoned to the chin, along with leather pants and skirts.)

Skirts and dresses and louboutin shoes were also strong in many collections, including that of Louis Vuitton, which recently began designing clothes for the first time under the leadership of New York native Marc Jacobs. "We're coming off the pantsuit being the classic look for career," says Rutkauskas. Jacobs is presenting very classic looks in luxurious fabrics like silk and cashmere. There were virtually no prints in the collection; it was all solid gray, blue, black, brown, winter white, and one lone rust-colored jacket and khaki shirt.

One interesting trend in the classic christian louboutin shoes  category was the use of the coat not as outerwear but as part of a suit ensemble. Models in the Costume National show, for example, wore knee-length, lightweight coats over sheath dresses, skirts, and pants of the same material. The look, both classic and chic, presents a different suit option for some working women.

"It's the business suit for a lawyer involved in entertainment law or advertising," says Dallai. But the wearer needs to be small and slim, he cautions. Indeed, even super-thin runway models looked broad from behind when the coat was slit up to the waist. Still, the concept is appealing. Says Rutkauskas, "The coat has gone from being an outerwear piece to a wardrobe complement."