Bandage dresses _ with feathers, too _ at Leger

NEW YORK (AP) — How many ways can you make a bandage dress? There seems to be no finite answer to that question, as Herve Leger keeps coming up with new adornments — some more successful than others — to the label's famous skintight garment.

At Saturday's runway show — packed, as usual — designers Max and Lubov Azria presented a Fall 2014 collection that added elements like geometric metal beading, feather trim and corset belts that resembled nothing so much as little cages (maybe that's why they're called cage-corsets). You could also find generous dollops of fur.

Many of the form-fitting garments were black, of course, but a few bright ones stood out: a bold coral and a nice champagne color that gave the dresses a slightly more muted feel.

But often they weren't muted at all. A bandage dress in dark blue with a mesh cutout and lots of encrusted beading looked like, well, a figure skating outfit. It came along with black over-the-knee boots, adding to the over-the-top effect.

On the other hand, a pale peachlike shade with similar encrusted beading, paired with nude leather booties, had a more subtle feel.

A split-hem dress was exactly what it sounds like: pleats, but broken into strips.

There were also big, boxy motorcycle jackets with huge fur sleeves. Good for fighting the winter chill, but the open toes on the over-the-knee boots? Perhaps not so much.

A number of dresses had long sleeves and achieved their allure through the tightness of the fabric. Azria, backstage, defined his view of "sexy" this way: "Something that shows nothing, but attracts everybody."

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AP writer Nicole Evatt contributed to this report.

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—Jocelyn Noveck, http://www.twitter.com/JocelynNoveckAP and Nicole Evatt, http://www.twitter.com/NicoleEvatt