Celebs in front row at Zac Posen's show

Zac Posen, with his handbag line, new fragrance deal and long list of sponsors for his show, certainly has an entrepreneurial spirit. It seems, though, he also admires the spirit of the pioneers.

His spring collection, presented Tuesday night to Demi Moore, Lucy Liu, Serena Williams, Martha Stewart, Sean "Diddy" Combs and hundreds of retailers, editors and stylists as part of New York Fashion Week, honored early American settlers and "their insistence on simplicity and craft."

In his notes, Posen explained that inspiration came from "'Days of Heaven' (a 1978 farmland film), the Shakers, wheat fields of the Great Plains and the romance of the wide open sky."

Believe it or not, "wheat" on the runway wasn't the craziest thing at the Bryant Park tents over the past eight days of previews for next season. Posen interpreted it both literally — a minidress with a large bow and a gigantic crystal wheat brooch — and figuratively. Those results were much more wearable: a series of daytime khaki-colored outfits, including a trim pantsuit with a jacket that had oversized pockets and a belt around the waist, paired with a white tie-neck shirt.

In Posen's world, pilgrims and pioneers also have occasions for fancier styles, such as a white cocktail dress with an oversized ruffled collar and pleated skirt — the pleats horizontal across the middle and vertical down to the hem — and a gown made of twisted ribbons that had tiers covering its full skirt and an exaggerated pouf on one shoulder.

Posen somehow turned a tornado into a good thing, sending a silver breeze down the runway with a lot of draping, a swirl of fabric on the skirt and a haphazard feather burst on one shoulder. However, a ravine remained a dangerous place, somewhere that a gown, especially a fussy, asymmetrical, one-shoulder one, should go.

The final group of gowns came down the runway together, each representing a different kind of cloud. The Cirrus gown had a puff of blue and white fabric on its shoulder, the Cyclone had the puff around its middle — not a look many women are striving for.

It made for a dramatic photo but there really was only one, the slimmer and strappier Cumulus, that likely has any future in the real world.