If the front row was any indication, Michael Volbracht is going to have to inject a bit more youthful vigor into the Bill Blass label if he hopes to win over the Pretty Young Things. Dr. Ruth and Joan Rivers certainly made for colorful commentary, but they aren’t going to be buying party dresses for much longer.

Rivers, who said she will be wearing Bill Blass to the Oscars (and claimed her best beauty secret was vitamins — riiight), might be just the audience for the fussy brocade coats with fur-trimmed collars, prim two-piece tweed suits, and uptight pinstipe pantsuits that have no place on the bods of the younger social set. There were successful splashes of color used throughout, like a swingy blue shift dress and a backless coral halter gown, but overall the mood was a bit stodgy. A leopard-print skirt and jacket were guilty of the same thing their wearer would be: trying to look younger than they really are. Volbracht might have been wise to use his finale, a parade of fun and party-ready little black dresses, as the focus of the show. But then, he might risk alienating the well-coiffed, fur-draped ladies-who-lunch that Ms. Rivers was blowing air kisses to from across the aisle.