Photos: _Vogue'_s Guide to Fall 2012 Fashion

In many arenas these days, it’s—to borrow a phrase from Beyoncé—girls who run the world (and where they don’t, perhaps they should). So what more appropriate message to see on fall’s runways than that of empowerment, with the best designers in New York, London, Milan, and Paris offering strong, chic, individual women new ways of dressing. The mood is adult and polished, with major embellishment, geometric prints, rich color, and lots of wonderful statement coats (that sometimes aren’t coats at all, but dresses or the like). In fact the shows effectively captured the extremism, wit, color, and imaginative spirit that will be celebrated this spring and summer when the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art displays the work of Miuccia Prada and Elsa Schiaparelli—two of fashion’s strongest women if ever there were.