Rodarte, Oscar de la Renta, Michael Kors, Sophie Theallet, Narciso Rodriguez - Review MICHAEL KORS A wool chesterfield with fur over a tweed pullover and beaded lace skirt. Laura and Kate Mulleavy have had a pretty weird journey since they left their home in Pasadena, Calif., to bring their Rodarte label to New York. It has been a kind of road trip, a theme they have actually sounded in a few collections And, because they haven't really told us where they are going (maybe they don't even know), things have a way of getting out of control. Their latest collection doesn't feel like a road trip, but it is as close to a road map as the Mulleavys have offered to date. The clothes convey the clutzy, tenderhearted beauty that they like, with outfits like lace guipure blouses in pale pink or rust worn with matching skirts, and a slim, double-breasted coat in horizontally striped pumpkin-and-cream wool with wide lapels. But the tougher attitude of some black shearling coats and separates took you back to a collection the sisters did a few years ago. In that show they tried to use leather in a mean, hard-core way, but the efforts came off as derivative of more-experienced designers" work. Still, hardness was part of their sensibility. With this collection, sophisticated and varied, the Mulleavys have worked out a few more kinks. The shearling, with the off-white wool forming random-width stripes on the black leather, is a brief of how to be imaginative. The fall shows are full of leather - crinkle, distressed, mixed with fabric - but so far, nothing has matched Rodarte's pieces in technique and simplicity of design. It's also interesting that you don't look at these clothes and think they could only (or best) be worn by a young person. By contrast, many of the clothes that Oscar de la Renta showed expressed an extremely narrow, and conventional, view of what is youthful. The Mulleavys had a pair of gorgeous tiered silk tea dresses - one in a red and black aboriginal print, the other in a rust finger-smudge print - that were certainly youthful but didn't make women out to be standard party girls. During the de la Renta show, 62 looks with black fishnets and ribbon-snared bouffant hairdos, I occasionally glanced across the runway at his wife, Annette. She was sitting as far back in her seat as she could, as if she didn't want to be in the path of a flying bit of diamante if it suddenly popped off a dress or headband. Mr. de la Renta's bijoux-print mini-dresses and skirts, shown with girlish sweaters, pink stoles or a powder-blue dyed mink jacket, strained in their attempt to be young. On the plus side, the collection was loaded with sporty separates, and there were one or two sleek, black paillette evening numbers. But he overused the brooch idea, which was already sketchy, and the pink and blue was in too much sweet abundance, like a runway of cotton candy. Under the cozy theme of "rugged elegance," Michael Kors served up fringed blanket coats and generous lashings of fur. Buried in the snowstorm were some great charcoal plaid or tweed dresses with black leather sleeves, as well as a black leather blouse shown with cropped black wool pants. Sophie Theallet offered more knits and sportswear this season, in bohemian patterns and muted jewel tones, and perhaps not enough of her distinctive femininity. Backstage, Narciso Rodriguez explained the technique he used for the seemingly slashed front of an orange silk dress with a brick-red back. It sounded complicated, but that thought wasn't present in this superb show. Mr. Rodriguez made everything look modern and effortless, from the new volumes in wool coats to the puzzle effects on dresses and tops. His best statement, though, was his bias-cut evening skirts in black or Bordeaux silk that he reduced to a swirling train. He paired them with a laminated silk top (it looked like leather but of course was lighter) or a fitted black jacket. With high-heeled ankle boots, they were like liquor to red-carpet candy.