Most designers save their show-stopping pieces for their close, but Jenny Packham pulled no punches.

Ms. Packham's opening look, a beaded tulle jumpsuit, was essentially a model wearing chunky beads and not much else. It was just this side of Bob Mackie-era Cher- and not at all for the shy.

The rest of the collection featured dreamy, gauzy dresses in satins, tulles and crepes.

Late night viewers of AMC will recognize soft 1930s and 1940s influences in the puff sleeves, explosions of beads against matte tulle and ladylike shirt dresses in pink and floral prints.

A Katherine Mansfield novel, set in the 1930s about a girl attending her first ball was the launching point, Ms. Packham said. "I'm designing dresses for women to feel beautiful in," she said. "I know they want to feel admired."

The collection's interpretation of the novel is something that's "frayed around the edges," she said. (Read more on the new Gossip Girl season, in whic h Blake Lively wears a Jenny Packham dress.)