‘Orange is the New Black’ actress goes strapless at NYFW in orange jumpsuit

NEW YORK – There are orange jumpsuits, and then there are orange jumpsuits.

And so the orangey-red strapless BCBG Max Azria jumpsuit that actress Samira Wiley wore Thursday to the designer’s runway show was quite different – very, very different – from one she might wear as Poussey Washington, her character on the Netflix prison-themed series “Orange is the New Black.”

But the colour was certainly not an accident, she acknowledged with a broad smile: “Of course it’s orange!” (Though the design house labels it as red.)

There was another reason the actress was smiling: This was the first runway show she had ever attended. “I think I’ll just have a dumb smile on my face all day long,” she said. “It’s so exciting.”

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While Wiley was going strapless, and wearing pumps that she acknowledged gave her some trouble on the wintry, icy streets of her New York neighbourhhod, most other attendees were bundled up in wool sweaters and boots.

Designers Max and Lubov Azria seemed to acknowledge the necessities of winter on the runway as well, giving their models relatively sensible – relatively, we stress – knee-high black leather boots to walk in, rather than the usual strappy sky-high stilettos.

There was lots of fur, too – in a fox-fur scarf, for example, or a fur motorcycle jacket, or a ginger-hued coat with a raccoon collar, or a shearling tunic in the appetizingly named colour of “soy chai.” Shearling leather capes looked so warm, it was hard not to swipe one off the runway for the trip home.

Equally inviting, especially for those with cold hands, were purses that looked like big fur muffs – called “hand-warmer clutches.” As for dresses, they were loose-fitting, with big, bright blocks of colour.

“It’s a collection that any woman can wear,” Max Azria said in an interview backstage. “A ‘Boheme’ style, but very chic and classy.” He said he saw it as less casual than some previous collections.

And he downplayed the factor everyone seemed to be talking about, with Fashion Week beginning right after one snowstorm and, according to predictions, before yet more snowfall.

“I think the weather is beautiful,” he said. “Some wind, some rain – it’s not a big deal.”