It was a mixed bag at Zac Posen: When, at the beginning of the show, he went flouncy and billowy with fabrics in Easter-egg pastels, it just seemed off.

When he went Goth and dramatic with dresses in black and white, it seemed somehow more organic and apt.Posen can create and construct a beautiful dress with design details that – for better or worse – make it feel wholly original, but he still has yet to create a collection that doesn’t have the underlying strain of trying too hard.

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It’s telling that the one knockout piece that had several in the front row pointing and nodding was a simple one-shouldered silver lame mini-dress. Nothing else created quite that level of awe. When it was all over, a deathly serious Posen took his curtain call with each sleeve of his suit jacket scrunched up over his pale pink shirt – a la the studied casualness of “Miami Vice”-era Don Johnson – folded one arm over his waist, and took the kind of sharp, crisp bow most commonly given by conductors, or tenors in the opera. Again: If only he wouldn’t try so hard.