It was a scene at Marc Jacobs: Ashton and Demi attracted such a big crowd that Posh Spice slipped by almost unnoticed. 50 Cent was there with a date who, it seemed, forgot to wear a top. The Kelly green runway was perched atop a river of turquoise bonbons, which Marc Jacobs — so thin and buff when he took his bow you could almost hear the gasp — has clearly not been eating. The show's very first model got a great big round of applause for stepping out of her uncooperative Lucite slides and carrying them in her hands like it was the newest trend.

But the clothes!

For the past few seasons, Jacobs has been playing with volume and with layers. With this collection, he demonstrated how lightly these concepts can work. The palette was mostly muted: cream, beige, and gray accented with shots of black and intense, shimmering metallics. If look No. 38 — soft layers of ombréd nylon waves moving from white through gray to a drop of inky black — were a sound, it would be wind in the leaves before a heavy, heavy rain. And model Karen Elson, draped in a billowing striped chiffon, looked like an exotic bird. This was fashion at its most Elysian.

As with many Jacobs collections, the looks vacillated between pure fancy (who really wants to wear MC Hammer harem pants?) and total wearability (soft jersey T-shirt dresses that could move straight from runway to rack).

Sometimes, the clothes needed a little unpacking. But for this designer, with his famously turbulent personal history, and his reputation as the king of that dark and moody moment called grunge, this was a moment of light and peace and a very calm beauty.

— Amy Larocca

Watch the show on video.

Browse Marc Jacobs's new collection.

Read Amy Larocca's profile of Marc Jacobs.