NEW YORK — Designer to the stars Vera Wang perfected the latest trend for structured fashion Tuesday by sending down the runway wool peplums, evening wear decorated with glass pearls and airy ruched skirts.

Most famous for her A-list wedding and red carpet gowns favored by the likes of Chelsea Clinton and Hollywood royalty, the veteran New York designer nonetheless prefers black and white on the catwalk.

The spring/summer 2017 collection was all about power, craft and mystery she told AFP after the show, which was watched by Tony-winning actress Cynthia Erivo and suspended Russian tennis ace Maria Sharapova from the front row.

The effect was a blend of French country romanticism, Chanel and classic American sports slouch that only someone of Wang’s pedigree could pull off after nearly 30 years as a designer.

"I wanted a very powerful woman," she explained. "The second thing was the craft," she said. "I want to feel as though they were very, very beautifully executed." "The third thing was a sense of mystery -- it is dark, no question, dark and light, but mostly dark.

"I think that sense of mystery -- I’m very well known for -- but I think this year it had a very different spine."

Structured gowns have been seen on the catwalk this season at Zac Posen, Jenny Packham and Vicky Zhang. Wang told AFP that she used peplum and all kinds of tailoring tricks to hold the clothes up.

Paired with strict blazers and the distinctive peplums that looked like belts or micro skirts, were long, airy skirts of ruched georgette, plus spookily long sleeves and vertiginous stilettos.

She described the sleeve as "almost like a new kind of glove."

"It fell down and it just trailed so it’s part of the romance I think of the collection and its darkness and the movement but mostly powerful," she said.

The evening dress was perhaps a bit more wearable: black and white dresses and skirts covered in hand-made glass pearls that rustled beautifully when the model walked the runway.

"Maybe I was thinking of Chanel and I didn’t realize! I was looking at the clothes, and I said ’black, white, noir, blanc and des perles’ -- that’s Chanel." — AFP