As a designer, it's nice to do what you want sometimes — even when everyone is telling you that you should be doing something else.

Carmen Marc Valvo usually features a mix of daywear and sportswear, along with the cocktail attire he is known for. But for his fall 2011 collection, he decided to go a little gown crazy.

He whipped up evening gowns in beaded silk tulle, iridescent chiffon and metallic lace, with swirling applique patterns that look like flowers. He created so many formal occasion looks that some of his staff bluntly told him there were too many gowns in the collection.

"No," he said emphatically. "I want one more gown."

Then they said there were too many gowns in black and nude.

He said, "I don't care."

"It just happened," he explained backstage after his show Sunday night at the NASDQ headquarters in Times Square. "I was embracing gowns. It was gown after gown. Fashion shows should be about fantasy. It wasn't about balance this season."

In response to the still dour economy, designers at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week are indulging in a sense of escape. How many of the fantasy looks seen on the runway will end up in stores is open to debate — designers often use the catwalk as a testing ground for styles and act according to reaction from buyers and the fashion press — but the theme for fall seems to be, "Let's have fun."

While Derek Lam featured some serviceable wool coats in gray and light blue, his most interesting looks included a nylon and beaver bomber jacket and an evening gown with a leather bodice. Lela Rose used fabrics that resemble thick paint scraped from a canvas and veiled overlays to achieve a sense of illusion. Rose got the idea from paintings done by abstract artist Gerhard Richter and worked with mills from Italy to achieve the scraped look on fabric.

"It's a fun way to show all the different technologies because at the end of the day, no one wants to dress in dark, heavy materials," Rose said backstage at Lincoln Center, where she received congratulations from actress Brittany Snow and Neiman Marcus fashion director Ken Downing.

Rose, a Dallas native, also defended the style of Texas women, when questioned by a television reporter who had attended Houston's fashion week last fall.

"They get a bad rap because of the whole big hair thing," Rose said. "When I was growing up, all the women I knew wore color well and had great style."

Tory Burch and Tommy Hilfger both looked to a fantasized view of the '70s, although each had a different interpretation.

Hilfiger envisions a rocker chick in mannish tailored double breasted suits, velvet blazers, extra-wide legged trousers and fedoras while Burch's view encompassed blouses with big bows (shades of former Houston mayor Kathy Whitmire) and billowy pants that graze the floor, along with schoolgirl plaids and a black sequined lace pantsuit that pays homage to Barbra Streisand's infamous Scassi creation worn when she won the Oscar for Funny Girl in 1969.

Hilfiger showed his collection in the largest space at Lincoln Center, decorating it with huge chandeliers for the show, which featured 70s-era rock music and celebrity guests like Rosario Dawson, Rose Byrne and New York Knicks player Amar'e Stoudemire watching from the front row.

Just hours earlier Burch's presentation took place in a much smaller space as Kayne West music blared and the singer looked on.(No Grammy appearance for him this year; his best-selling CD, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, came out after the deadline for nominations so he'll have to wait until next year.) He and Burch are good friends, although one might wonder what they have in common.

Burch is clearly the hot designer of the moment, as a long line waiting to get into the small room and those inside fretted that fire marshalls might close it down for being overcrowded. Throughout the presentation, in which three sets of models took position on the stage and then walked the runway, Burch stood with West amid the crowd and intently looked at the designs while receiving congratulations.

Diane von Furstenberg didn't just settle on one type of women for her fantasy theme. She called the collection "American Legends," with a salute to "...muses and artists...travelers and settlers...always pushing the boundaries with strength and panache." That seemed to cover just about everyone.

At first the models seemed straight out of a spaghetti western, in gaucho pants in an Aztec pattern, wide-brimmed hats, suede boots and fringed jackets. But then they took on a more urban tone in heavily embellished cocktail dresses and sequined gowns, one with a plunging back.

Von Furstenberg, who broke her nose while skiing in Aspen last month — backstage before the show she showed a reporter some gruesome photos of her face — turned over many of the design duties to her right-hand man, Yvan Mispelaere, and seemed happy to share the credit. She walked arm-in-arm with him the length of the runway after the show to acknowledge applause.

An American legend, Barbara Walters, sat on the front row, near Diane Sawyer and husband Mike Nichols, across from wacky Bravo host Andy Cohen and opera star Renee Fleming.

The 81-year-old newscaster, looking fully recovered from open heart surgery last spring, said she was pleased with the response to her special on the subject. "It got a huge reaction, especially from women. More women die from heart heart disease than all other illnesses put together," she said. "I hope it makes a difference."

In the special, she got former President Bill Clinton, Robin Williams, Regis Philbin and David Letterman to speak about their experiences undergoing surgery. Getting Letterman to talk was a real coup because he rarely does interviews. "I think he realized it was important (to spread the word)," Walters said.

Back at the Carmen Marc Valvo show, another well-known newcaster, Katie Couric, showed up backstage to congratulate the designer on his show and celebrate his new book, Dressed to Perfection: The Art of Dressing for Your Red Carpet Moments. Couric, whose husband died of colon cancer, and Valvo, a colon cancer survivor, have become good friends; she wrote an essay that appears in the book. Proceeds will go for colon cancer research.

"It's real special and it's beautiful," Valvo said. "I'm excited."

Valvo will appear in Houston March 7 and 8 at Neiman Marcus to promote his book and his collection and also to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Career Day Houston.