New York Fashion Week: Chado Ralph Ruccis tools for seduction

Ralph Rucci moved his runway show from the Bryant Park Tents downtown to his SoHo showroom this season. If he was letting loose a little bit, it showed, first in his eclectic front row -- Whoopi Goldberg and Andre Leon Tally, '70s songwriting duo Ashford and Simpson, Fran Leibowitz, Martha Stewart and Deeda Blair -- it doesn't get much more wild and crazy than that. And then in his opening song, "White Rabbit." Pass the mink-covered hooka, dude!

In all seriousness, there has been a sexual charge surging through Rucci's Nipponese-serene style of late, and this superb collection kept it going. Every piece was a potential tool of seduction, from the matte black sequin screen siren gown, to the mink lined rain coat with decorative "scarring" at the hem and cuffs.