New York Fashion Week’s garden variety: Carolina Herrera, Donna Karan & Barbara Tfank

LA Time’s correspondent Booth Moore reports on the NYC Fashion Week experience:

Maybe it’s the grow-your-own food movement, the popularity of farmers markets, or simply the fact that these are spring collections, but botany is sprouting up as a theme all over the runways.

Carolina Herrera took colors, prints and floral appliques from 18th century botanical plates for her collection, which included a gown hand-painted with the image of a flower, along with its name and species.

 For her Garden of Eden-themed collection, Monique Lhuillier worked with cherry blossom print taffeta, draping it into a pleated A-line cocktail dress and a ball gown. (Also spotted: “sage green,” “mint floral” and “poppy” organza.)

At Donna Karan, shoes were decorated with leather leaves and gauzy long slip dresses were “saffron-stained” and “tamarind-distressed.” A rough-textured, jute-colored nubuck jacket was reminiscent of a seed sack.

 Jenny Packham, who is fast becoming a favorite of the red carpet set for her lovely gowns — many of which have sleeves, for those who care about that sort of thing — tapped wallpaper specialists de Gournay to design the moody, hand painted florals for her finale gowns, one in a silk crepe de chine with a beaded tulle shoulder.