Kardashians watch Wang heavy metal stunner in NY

Reality star Kim Kardashian, rapper husband Kanye West and their toddler daughter North West were guests of honor at Alexander Wang's heavy metal meets gothic grunge Saturday at New York Fashion Week.

Paparazzi swooped on the family, in particular baby North, who was kitted out in a custom-made Wang skirt edged with the same silver studs that played a starring role on the catwalk.

Guests braved snow and freezing weather to attend the show at a warehouse in New York's gritty Lower East Side overlooked by housing projects that are home to some of Manhattan's poorest residents.

Models with oily, tousled hair and nude lips, who included baby North's aunt Kendall Jenner, powered down the runway in black, black and yet more black in a show that won rave reviews and thundering applause.

Even fashion queen Anna Wintour, Vogue's editor-in-chief, put her hands together for enthusiastic claps as the boyish Wang ran down the catwalk at the end, dressed in a monochrome plaid shirt with his long hair flying.

The signature look of his 2015 fall/winter collection was the silver stud, which hemmed jackets, coats and dresses, ran in vertical stripes, embellished bags and made a quilt-style effect.

His models wore enormous studded chokers, studded V-necks and sported watch-style chains hanging from zipped pockets, and silver zips ran up and down the throat.

There were cropped leather biker jackets, and sharply tailored trousers, military-style oversized jackets with silver buttons and a dressing gown-style coat edged at the collar, hem and on the sash with studs.

Velvet and leather was paired with wool to add textures, and shoulders were cut out to expose bare skin -- a key trend on the catwalk this season.

The only splash of color came in the form of a red tartan parka coat and an oversized waistcoat.

Silver chain mail

Studs also embellished white Shetland-style sweaters, paired with stone-wash jeans.

For evening, the Wang woman of 2015 will be wearing see-through silver chain mail dresses finished off with wide leather belts and worn under enormous jackets with oversized black fur collars.

It was the polar opposite of French clothing brand Lacoste, which brought winter tennis and a slice of Hollywood comedy to the New York runway earlier on Saturday, combining sport and tailoring for fall/winter 2015.

Artistic director Felipe Oliveira Baptista, who loves mining the company's archives for inspiration, opted this season for tennis -- the sport of French champion and brand founder Rene Lacoste.

"I also wanted to give a very fun side to the collection, so there's a mix of styles, with tracksuit bottoms worn with a cashmere coat," he told AFP.

"It's street, bourgeoise and a little touch of 'The Royal Tenenbaums,'" he said of the Hollywood comedy starring Gene Hackman and Gwyneth Paltrow.

The runway show mixed "casually sophisticated sportswear" with tailoring inspired by the refinement of the 1930s with the colors of the 1970s, a look inspired by the past but made contemporary.

There were short skirts paired with long coats, knits that hugged the body and tracksuits in jersey, nylon and silk to create what the brand called "an urban versatile look."

"The Lacoste person is someone who is on the go but who is upbeat," Baptista said.

"Freedom of movement, comfort, being yourself and also this idea that each look is also a character, a personality."