Walking through Lincoln Center today as Fashion Week descended upon New York, there was a strange feeling all around, enough to give me goosebumps at Richard Chai’s Love show. It could have been the bone-chilling temps that made me want to dash backstage and grab anything to throw around the shoulders, but there was something else in the air.

Chai continued exploring the duality of a woman—the cool, sharp, at times athletic side to her, and the quiet, demure side. He also continued his signature layering, and lots of it, while managing to avoid the strangled look. Wrap coats under blazers, skirts over pants, a shawl-collar coat under a cocoon vest, sweaters with funnel necks, and military coats over easy floor-length dresses. Most eye-catching were the blouses, transparent with oversized sequins, paired with tweedy overcoats. Even Charlotte Free’s blonde tresses seemed layered with a fresher shade of shock-pink.

But that feeling, it hadn’t gone away. It was only when Liu Wen appeared wearing both a cashmere parka and double-knit double-collar coat, and Suvi Koponen closed the show sporting a cream and gold wool utility vest that I finally understood. That feeling, it was love.