Jason Wu Fall 2015 RTW

Jason Wu was the first of the young designers to make their names by dressing the First Lady—a raw silk rosette-embroidered sheath for a Barbara Walters appearance in 2008—and he s continued to assert his inclination to dress women as women rather than as “girls,” both at his namesake collection and from his perch at the helm of Boss. No teddy bear toppers, blanket coats, or other evidence of fashion s flights of fancy here: The Jason Wu woman wants her animal in a densely embroidered power mesh dress pulled over the head like a T-shirt, or peeking out from under a military khaki-colored coat as a chubby fox underlayer. And fur-as-underlayer is as "trendy" as Wu gets—Rihanna wore a furry blue bustier under a denim top yesterday (and street style stars may already be following suit)—but these layered looks came straight from a staid, sensible place. "I was kind of infatuated with the notion of global dressing and the fact that we never know what kind of weather it is," Wu said during a phone call earlier this Week, and almost all of the outerwear pieces were what he called "transitional or transferable; clothes that you can wear for more than a month out of the year," such as a parka that can be taken apart into a fur vest and a lightweight down jacket or worn together as a winter coat.

There was evening glamour on hand, too, for Jason Wu s women. Inspired by his recent fixation on the couture shapes of the sixties, there was a silk satin jumpsuit replete with a belted fox stole for the Bianca Jagger inclined, and a standout scarf-tie topped white crepe gown that seemed destined for the red carpet—perhaps on the back of the very demurely dressed music video dancer turned Gone Girl actress Emily Ratajkowski, who took in the show today from the front row. And perhaps that’s the message here: There is no easier way than wearing Jason Wu to prove that you ve gone and grown up.

Watch Jason Wu and models backstage before his fall runway show: