Outwardly, the spring haute couture shows were about the joys of gardening and how many brides you could put on a runway. (Dior, 5; Chanel, 2, though Karl Lagerfeld might have upstaged Raf Simons of Dior by having a pair of lesbian brides.) Not to be left out, the house of Valentino also dug a garden theme. “Really, we didn’t call Karl and Raf,” Pierpaolo Piccioli, who, with Maria Grazia Chiuri, designs Valentino, said with a laugh.

It would be O.K. if they had, since the Valentino clothes owed their pure lines and filigree embroidery to garden architecture — mazes, terraces, curling ironwork — from the Renaissance. Traced in piping on a cream evening cape or embossed on the stiff skirt of a wool day dress, these patterns are gutsy. They also link Valentino to Italian culture.

What Mr. Piccioli and Ms. Chiuri have gained over the last couple of years at Valentino, after a rocky start, is control over their form. This collection has, among other qualities, a strong sense of line, so that the cut and finishing of, say, a caped dress or a deep red strapless gown, stand out.

That precision of thought, in a business of compromises, is the virtue of couture, and it’s what Ms. Chiuri and Mr. Piccioli are closer to acquiring. It was evident in their morning-light palette of creams, light tan and pearl white, and in their lace pieces. If the Valentino designers can relate emotionally to Italian stone and iron, they may have found a vital creative key.

A garden is nothing if not the promise of continuity amid change — the change of colors and seasons, the impertinent arrival of weeds and drought. The garden goes on. By showing some of the same styles he first introduced at Dior, like a sharper Bar jacket trouser suit, Mr. Simons was essentially putting in his hardy perennials. Let’s put it another way: the Chanel cardigan jacket has roots deep in the Paris soil. So does the Bar, but it needs to be cultivated. Mr. Simons is starting that process.

The remarkable thing about this collection, aside from its colors and ultralight layers, was how easily it introduced asymmetry without pushing the “It’s unwearable!” button. More than a decade ago, John Galliano brought deconstruction to Dior. Everything was upside down and pulled apart. It was great, but how many people actually wore the clothes the way he showed them?

“The idea is to make the shoulders beautiful,” Mr. Lagerfeld said. Some of the built-out collars of suits and dresses will not flatter every figure, but filling in necklines with white sequined yokes certainly puts the face in good light. Chanel’s misty forest, which also featured dresses with blood-red flowers against a black embroidered ground, provided a warm note of melancholia. It’s an underrated mood in fashion, creating a richness only for those inclined to embrace it.

Observing a cream chiffon gown plumped at the bodice with pale gray feathers, I remarked to Mr. Lagerfeld about the gray.

“But it would look flat if the feathers were only white,” he said.

Indeed. The same could be said about many things.

The other spring couture shows were good, but not as inspiring. Giorgio Armani put tension into his tailoring, with closefitting silk pants and smart jackets alternating with sexy tops. Baton-shaped ornaments wound into garments were inexplicable, but the jostle of chevron stripes and micro jacquards made a distinctive statement. Donatella Versace also emphasized shoulders in a collection that joyfully subverted pinstriped power suits by repeating the pattern in neon minkand metal mesh. The techniques were impressive.

Although Giambattista Valli had some sweet fabrics, his molded shapes looked trapped in couture aspic. He’s capable of a modern attitude. Which is exactly what Bouchra Jarrar showed with her skimmy dresses, an ink-plumed corset and her standout coats in houndstooth and ribbed gray silk.

Joy Cioci will instead present her collection in mid-March after editors and buyers return from Paris Fashion Week, the last event in the monthlong round of collections. The New York calendar “was so crowded, and it’s so hectic for buyers and the editors, she says of the four seasons she showed at the fashion-week tents. “I just felt that I wasn’t getting the investment return.”

Yoana Baraschi, whose 10-year-old label showed at fashion week for many seasons, will also move to mid-March. Her presentation, she says, will be more intimate, and she will be able to hire high-caliber talent that is usually booked during fashion week.”Everybody wants the same models and the same stylists. It’s just spinning out of control,” Ms. Baraschi says of the official week. “No one can see as many shows as there are now.”

New York’s calendar has become noticeably more crowded as labels squeeze in with entrepreneurial zeal. While fashion shows used to be limited to high-style labels, midprice contemporary labels and menswear brands are now muscling into New York. One reason: No official body controls the calendar, unlike in Milan and Paris, where just a few dozen labels are invited to show in each fashion week. So far, 283 labels have registered to present collections at New York Fashion Week, up from 204 in Feb. 2007, according to the Fashion Calendar, a company that tracks fashion events.While the official calendar runs Thursday to Thursday from Feb. 7-14, designers actually will start showing as early as Monday, Feb. 4, turning the “week” into 11 days.

“I need memory retention. I need a chance to sit and talk to these people,” says designer Daniel Vosovic, who is moving his three-year-old label to a March presentation as well.Often, it is cheaper to circumvent New York Fashion Week. Mackage designers Elisa Dahan and Eran Elfassy found it less expensive to fly editors to their show at Toronto Fashion Week. They launched Montreal-based Mackage in New York in 1999—but started showing in Toronto last year. “I feel like we were little kids trying to accomplish a dream,” Ms. Dahan says of those early shows. But in Toronto, she says, they can hire top models who are contractually forbidden to do their shows in New York because of agreements with more powerful brands.

The cost of a show during New York Fashion Week is generally six figures and can rise to more than $1 million for big brands. If you hire top models, the minimum cost of a show is $350,000, says Ms. Baraschi, who estimates she will save 60% of the cost by moving to March.

Many designers are creating carefully produced videos of their collections. Rather than limiting their audience to the people at the show, they can send the video to stores and editors, use it for advertising and put it on YouTube and style.com. “It has longevity,” Ms. Cioci says.

Designers who forsake New York’s fashion week still plan to keep their showrooms open to take orders from store buyers during the week, just as they have in the past.

The chaos is a natural part of a fast-changing industry, says Tom Florio, former publisher of Vogue, who recently took over as CEO of Advanstar Fashion group, which runs eight fashion trade shows. Mr. Florio’s new shows, which seek to get higher fashion into the trade-show environment, aim to lure New York Fashion Week regulars. One show called “The Tents” will launch later this month in Las Vegas, inviting trendy menswear labels such as Billy Reid and Michael Bastian to participate. “There are so many ways to communicate fashion today,” says Mr. Florio. “You don’t necessarily have to tell that story on the runway anymore.

None of this diminishes many designers’ aspirations to reach New York fashion week. To launch her new ready-to-wear Rivini line during fashion week, bridal designer Rita Vinieris started looking for open times in October. “The calendar is insanely crowded,” she says. She settled on Feb. 6, a day before official fashion week. She hopes to reach editors who miss her presentation with a video and private appointments.

Nary Manivong, whose NAHM label will be showed to editors by appointment in March, says he is sanguine about skipping New York Fashion Week. “For me, fashion week will always be there. I can always come back.”

The Canada Day holiday weekend is finally here — why not drape yourself in clothes, accessories and beauty products that are designed, invented and manufactured in Canada?
Despite the well-established trek to offshore production in many industries including the fashion business, it’s time to shine the light on those that elect to design and manufacture their goods at home.
“Ever since I started Second Denim in 2000, I’ve chosen to manufacture the product here although I could have gone offshore and benefitted from the apparent lower costs. But I know very well that in our (fashion) industry, offshore manufacturing is not all goodness,” says Eric Wazana, founder and creative director for Second Denim, the company known for inventing Yoga Jeans in 2007. “Offshore prices are low, but lead times are too long, quality is hard to manage, rework is expensive, and there is no real opportunity to react quickly to changes in demand.”
Successful at home and abroad for its Yoga Jeans, which were rumoured to be worn by the Duchess of Cambridge, Second Denim continues to produce in Canada, with Wazana having recently bought the plant that manufactures most of their product in the Beauce area of Quebec, saving the jobs of close to 70 employees.
Tilley Endurables is another well-established Canadian brand that’s also proud to wave the flag, producing almost everything they have made for close to 30 years in Toronto and Montreal.
“We’re a family business and it’s part and parcel of our brand to be hands on and contribute to the Canadian economy by making all but two of our products here in Canada, where we create about 300 jobs and related spin-off jobs,” says Susan Laspa, a spokesperson for Tilley Endurables.
“Our hats and clothes are known for being stylish, durable, easy-to-wear, lightweight and water-resistant, and are distinguished by the slogan on our label Made In Canada, where we can keep a watchful eye,” adds Laspa.
You may not know Montreal’s Fullum & Holt, but chances are there’s at least one piece of its stylish baggage you’d like to carry.
The brand, which has been manufactured in a factory at the corner of Fullum and Holt streets in Montreal since 1897, is also the largest manufacturer of leather belts in North America and is known the world over for both its own line of leather goods and those it produces for LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey), Ralph Lauren, Saks Fifth Avenue, Helmut Lang, Alexander Wang, Gucci Group and other international fashion heavyweights.
“Our business has grown 50% since 2009, and we will continue to design and produce timeless bags close to home where we can exercise better control over the quality and bring the bags to market faster,” says Morgan Hirsh, the company’s president.
Manitobah Mukluks is another Canadian company, with footwear and leather goods handmade in Manitoba by Aboriginal artisans.
Well-known beauty products include the Laboratoire Dr Renaud line of about 150 aesthetic skincare products that are researched and developed in Laval, Que.

Suzann Pettersen: One of the most powerful players in women’s golf, Pettersen ranks 10th in average driving distance (267 yards) and led the tour in greens hit in regulation in 2010 and ’11. Born in Oslo, Norway, she is a six-time member of the European Solheim Cup team (12-8-5 record) and has eight career victories.

Morgan Pressel: She went 4-0-0 at the 2011 Solheim Cup and always seems to play well in major championships. Pressel describes herself as patriotic and said there’s nothing she’d like more than to win the U.S. Women’s Open four days after the Fourth of July. She won’t overpower Blackwolf Run, but chipping and putting are among her strengths.

So Yeon Ryu: The defending U.S. Women’s Open champion, Ryu undoubtedly got some good tips from Pak when they came in for a practice round at Blackwolf Run in May. Ryu hasn’t won this year, but she has six top-five finishes in 11 starts and ranks among the top 30 in every major statistical category except driving accuracy (45th) and sand saves (46th). She is ranked 19th in the world.

Yani Tseng: Possessing supreme talent and an effervescent personality, the 23-year-old Tseng is the youngest player, male or female, to win five major championships and is ranked No. 1 in the world. In 2008, at 19, she won the LPGA Championship to become the first Taiwanese player to win an LPGA major. She has since added the Kraft Nabisco Championship (2010), Wegmans LPGA Championship (2011) and the Ricoh Women’s British Open (2010, 2011). Tseng has won three times this year and leads the money list with $1,005,527.

FIVE TO WATCH

Carlota Ciganda: A rookie on the Ladies European Tour, Ciganda made 13 birdies in a 36-hole qualifier at Big Foot Country Club in Fontana and cruised to an 11-stroke victory. The 22-year-old Spaniard made history at Arizona State by becoming the first back-to-back winner of the Pac-10 Championship. Ciganda ranks fifth on the LET Order of Merit.