Diane von Furstenberg at NY Fashion Week

NEW YORK — Diane von Furstenberg let the crowd attending New York Fashion Week in on a little secret Sunday: Fashion is a puzzle.

Von Furstenberg, who, as president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America is the de facto leader of the American fashion community, used jigsaw puzzle pieces as a prominent theme of her fall collection, presented to a packed house that included her personal friends Oscar de la Renta, Anderson Cooper, Diane Sawyer and Barbara Walters. There was a puzzle print on a pink sleeveless dress, and laser-cut pieces on a black embellished one. A model carried a puzzle-box bag.

She described her muse of the season in her notes: "With a heightened awareness to the promise of places she has not yet been, people she has not met yet, she wraps herself in layers of opposing dimensions, ready for anything. Practiced in the art of innuendo. she commands sleek silhouettes with sheer accents cut to reveal just enough."

Von Furstenberg alternated between sophisticated, simple and sometimes smoldering jersey dresses in dark colors and fun cocktail numbers in bright, almost tropical shades of pink, lime green and bright blue. It was a palate cleanser for the palette of black, gray, dark green and deep purple that's been served for four days to editors, stylists and retailers at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.

"This collection is called 'Rendezvous,'" von Furstenberg explained before the show. "It's all about loving to be a woman. It's about seduction. It is bold. It is daring. It is strong, but it has humor. It's all about liking your body, and at the same time with big coats, so it's the yin and the yang."

Associated Press Writer John Carucci contributed to this report.