Stella McCartney's shows are always a dialogue between masculine and feminine. Mannish or womanly, the clothes usually give off a fair bit of heat. Her new collection for Fall wasn't exactly sexless, but it did have a cooler, less come-hither sensibility than usual, which seemed to play against her strengths. It started with banker's pinstripes—the first look a double-breasted jacket with uneven, diagonal hems worn over a long skirt in a thinner stripe with a folded drape in front. More covered-up pinstripes followed: men's coats that topped cropped pants, a buttoned-to-the-collar shirt tucked into pleated trousers, and an unstructured dress extending to the mid-calf. Backstage, the designer talked about "inserting the feminine into masculine," but the models' willowy frames tended to get a bit lost in the clothes. A striped turtleneck sweater shown with a flippy miniskirt felt more like the old Stella. Things warmed up some for evening, and there McCartney was thinking along languid and more structured lines. In the former category, simple squares of silk were suspended from wide bands of elastic. In the latter, a lapel spilled down the front of a strapless bustier dress in black silk jacquard, but it couldn't detract from its seductive appeal.