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What does it really mean to “dress like a woman”? Social media recently took it upon itself to answer that question, after a brief flurry of rumors about a possible White House prom dresses code. At the Grammys, so did Beyoncé, who apparently decided it meant looking like the golden goddess of fecundity. Now designers are having their turn. It is, after all, a question that lies at the heart of fashion, and that they, at least theoretically, are supposed to be asking themselves every season.Of course, that doesn’t mean they always come up with viable answers.

Indeed, during New York Fashion Week shows on Sunday, they sometimes seemed to get so entangled in the many possible responses that they tripped over their own hemlines. Or, in the case of Sander Lak at Sies Marjan, the many fluttery bits that dangled, flapped, ruffled and wobbled in his painterly procession of aubergine, peach, mint green and fluorescent pink. Even with some sporty snaps to ground them, his dresses (and sleeves and trousers) looked as if they’d taken a wrong turn on the way to a Martha Graham dance performance and ended up in the ballroom of the Sixth Avenue Hilton by mistake.

Prabal Gurung, however, seemed to know exactly where he was going: toward “multiple ways to celebrate the exuberance of being a woman and to interpret her femininity as she sees fit,” according to the show notes.

Witness giant nubby, braided and tufted Nepalese knits in wool and cashmere with fox trim. Sleek camo intarsia mink furs in lemon, olive green and white, made for a Park Avenue warrior. Silver devoré shirting and flared trousers fit for a glam rock star. And sheer crystal-spotted evening gowns with micro-bugle-beaded bra tops for — well, it wasn’t entirely clear for whom. Someone who does a lot of Soul Cycle, maybe. And a finale of T-shirts personalized for each model (including those of welcomely nontraditional runway size) and bearing such messages as “The Future is Female,” “My boyfriend is a feminist,” “I am an immigrant,” and so on.

By the time Mr. Gurung appeared for his bow, wearing one of his own tees — “This is what a feminist looks like” — his celebrity front row (the most diverse yet for any designer, with Misty Copeland, Sarah Jessica Parker, Huma Abedin, Priyanka Chopra and Diane Kruger, among others) were on their feet in ecstasy.Continue reading the main story

Yet with the myriad possibilities, it was also a bit of a muddle. It’s not enough to be inspired by all women, lovely as that sentiment is: Designers also have to know what they stands for — the specific thing they offer women — and to make aesthetic choices. While some of Mr. Gurung’s were great (those knits!), some were cloying (a lemon-yellow cold-shoulder dress dripping with plissé at the sleeves and a host of covered buttons down the skirt), and some were just plain silly. Dressing like a woman does not mean putting the breasts front and center via an entirely sheer Lurex turtleneck, the free-the-nipple movement aside.

Whether it instead means dressing in the pearl-trim gray flannel cape of a renaissance prince, on the other hand, as Joseph Altuzarra seemed to think it does, is far from certain. In an about-face from last season’s flirtatious romp through the Côte d’Azur, for fall, Mr. Altuzarra took a decidedly more covered-up and historicist turn in black velvet and ruby jacquard.

Wool coats were finished in elaborate frogging and big pearl buttons, leather combat boots studded with pearls were laced up to mid-thigh, and they were echoed by corset lacing at the waists of velvet-trim pencil-tight jersey dresses. Big fur pockets were belted atop little velvet dresses with white poplin collars. Aside from some flame-red leather motorcycle pants worn with a houndstooth blazer, it tipped a bit too far into Shakespearean re-enactment territory — at least until a gold-embroidered evening skirt with a simple silk blouse, molded red velvet trouser suit and series of gold-and-glass embroidered gowns tore free of the heavy hand, and fabrics, of their more costume-y antecedents.

Perhaps the question itself is too weighty these days — which is why, at Diane von Furstenberg, Jonathan Saunders took a somewhat alternative approach and chose to reframe the issue in the mantra of the brand’s founder, “Feel like a woman, wear a prom dresses uk!”