Hemlines went mini-er (as usual, they'll be let down several inches before the garments hit stores next year). The roomier Von Furstenberg shifts hit well above the knee. Michael Kors' loose-fitting, sequined cocktail dress bared a lot of back and almost all of the legs. Tracy Reese offered a strapless dress that smocked dramatically out from the bustline (but you'd better have shoulders you want to flaunt).

These clothes demonstrate opposing concepts. The surplus fabrics conceal, distort and protect the body they shroud, while simultaneously revealing a lot through selective openings.

This fall, sweaters are cozy, comforting and reassuring; next season's version is a shrunken shield, like the outer projecting layer on Wang's strapless dress that made it not only beautiful, but tough. Jacobs even gave his models layered head gear: jockey caps over scarves. Hints of bared skin — legs, a shoulder or even a plunging neckline — present a subtle vulnerability, a crack in the Kevlar.

One designer took the fashion-as-armor idea more literally. In an extremely commercial show, Kimora Lee Simmons' Baby Phat label presented styles that were on the skimpy side (like short shorts). Yet all of the models sported grills (metallic plates that covered their teeth), sculpted, forbidding Mohawks and handbags so huge they could have doubled as weapons.

E-mail: sglassman@startribune.com