On day five of Fashion Week, designers are thinking big

James Keivom/New York Daily News

A model in a gauzy creation from Milly by Michelle Smith on Monday.

It's over the top.

'Larger than life' could be this season's mantra. As day five of New York's Fashion Week came to a close, the aroma of excess was in the air. It's not just silhouette or size - New York designers are pushing the envelope when it comes to luxe fabrics, furs, patterns, beading, jewel-like colors and even accessories.

Celebrating her 30th year, Donna Karan staged a really big show on Wall Street Monday evening. Stars like Katie Holmes and Hugh Jackman turned out to see Karan's take on jackets, bodysuits and oversized coats with many bits of fur. Her exploration of sheer -- on jackets, sweaters and filmy velvet devore gowns -- was most provocative, and beautiful.

The expectation at Tommy Hilfiger, with a ski chalet in the backdrop and snow on the catwalk, was active or apres-ski wear. For fall, however, it was as though he created clothing for the skier's version of the British 'footballer's wife.' She doesn't ski. Instead, the woman on Tommy's runway wore luxe pieces: velvet sweatshirts, a Chanel-style frayed-edge jacket in orange fleece, and suede puffers. Plaids were blown up for a bold look in bright colors that will definitely be seen from the sidelines. Carolina Herrera's silhouettes were softer this season, with rounded shoulders and loose, elbow-length sleeves. Her always elegant presentation, at Lincoln Center on Monday morning, was really a celebration of color and prints in bold, geometric patterns. However, even this master of the classic pushed it - her models were adorned with big, sculptural buns, some with little black cone hats, and most wore fluffy, oversized earrings. And then there were the clothes. Throw in a little beading on the shoulder straps, and it's a cacophony. The world of furrier-turned-designer Dennis Basso starts out oversized with his posh-beyond-posh coats. This season, he turned it up a notch with heavy hand-jeweling adorning evening dresses to the extent that it almost looked like chain mail. Mixing alligator and chiffon, and beading and big, fluffy sable could be a hot mess, but Basso's efforts come off as a posh patchwork you want to examine more closely. Phillip Lim went big with his prints and patterns for his 3.1 Phillip Lim collection. Oversized orchids adorned silks and jackets, and a giant windowpane plaid decorated jackets and mile-wide trousers. He admitted to naming the woman he was designing for this season - 'Soleil'- and said her world was 'between instant pop and culture.' Michelle Smith's Milly was an ode to the beauty of classical dance, which meant a lot of black, gray and blush pink - ballet colors. However, she pushed the edge, using silver crackle leather generously throughout the collection for skirts, shirts and even dresses. The dancer's habit of layering and layering could be to blame for her piling short dresses over longer skirts and sheer jackets over sweatshirts, but it kind of worked. Kenneth Cole was working the crisp, long, loose layered look for fall. This designer drew from a basic palette of black, white, gray and oxblood.