Something's Different About Olivier Theyskens' Theory The invitation to the Theyskens' Theory show was coated with a substance that made it feel as scratchy as a piece of sandpaper. It was so rough you could file your nails with it. But the actual runway at the show today looked as smooth and wet as a slick of black oil, so you could imagine the designer Olivier Theyskens was playing with textures, or something like thats. His collection was primarily dark, with a lot of great pants and tailored jackets, most of them in black. Some of the pants had pleats dropped about three or four inches below the waist, and slouchier versions were made of material that looked almost like plastic. Mr. Theyskens included a lot of big design ideas in this collection: super rounded shoulders on jackets, for example, or a gossamer-thin coat covered in icy sequins, or tweed jackets with dropped shoulders and bracelet sleeves - none of which really looked like something you would expect from the designer of Theory. Since he moved to New York to design for the label, beginning with a capsule for spring 2011, Mr. Theyskens has transformed his runway collection from something that was overtly commercial (there were corduroy jeans in an early collection) to something that could be called commercial-but-also-artistic. The change has come by a matter of degrees, and probably by design. Mr. Theyskens has transformed himself as well. The models in his show all wore wigs of a uniform slicked-down style and length. When he came out, he revealed he had chopped off his own long locks to a matching length, which is significant if only because he has often designed his clothes specifically with long-haired women in mind. There's typically a notch in the back neckline of a jacket to accommodate a ponytail. Last month, he told Into the Gloss that he had wanted to cut his hair for years but was waiting for just the right moment to make a change.