Attending Hoffman’s Spring presentation, aptly named “Mara Mexicana,” was like being at a fiesta with Mariachi bands to boot. While Hoffman drew inspiration from famed Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, the cheerful patterns and colors undoubtedly channeled the designer’s personal life. “It was time for celebrating life and enjoying the fruits of our labor,” Hoffman said. “I just had a baby and thought, ‘It’s time for life, it’s time for color’.”

The collection boasted six different prints in palates from neon to neutral. There were laid back rompers with eye popping Aztec prints in oranges and blue, sheer silk crepe tunics, and dashikis with neon embroideries (a nod to her swimwear collection).

“We wanted to make clothes you can wear to work,” Thuy Pham, one half of the design duo that is United Bamboo told us after their spring 2012 show. And if you want to be the chicest, hippest, girl at the office, this collection is for you.

There was an emphasis on suiting, but with a relaxed bent: a black leather blazer you could live in; navy linen pleat front pants and blazers to match; printed slouchy silk dresses. But as always with United Bamboo, there are subtle twists and tricks. The feminine bow details at the shoulder of dresses served a function, too. Pham demonstrated on a dress his co-designer Aoki that the bow is actually a ribbon sewn through the waist of the dress, so when it’s tied at the shoulder it’s gathered just-so. Blazers were split open at the back. Pham said the pair were influenced by Issey Miyake in the ’90s. The abstract prints were done by Aoki’s husband, a painter who was inspired by ’80s street graffiti.

And of course we couldn’t leave without asking about their famous cat calendar (obviously a Fashionista favorite).

Nicole Miller titled her spring collection Fast Forward/Rewind, describing “the speed of wheels in motion” as her inspiration. The athletic-cool clothes brought new meaning to the term “street style,” with colorful checkerboard patterns and racerback tanks sharing runway space alongside–wait for it–a head-to-toe patchwork neon jumpsuit. While we recommend leaving that particular look to the professionals, there was still plenty of wearable fun in a collection that drew on vintage cycling and Rollerblading garb. The biggest standouts, in my opinion, were the separates embellished with tons of colorful seed beads, those arts-and-crafts decorations beloved by summer campers and DIYers everywhere. Shimmering across skirts and thin-strapped slipdresses, the beads added a little richness and heft (literally–by the thousands, those things weigh down a frock like none other) to the lineup. For those less daring, there was also a section of body-con black frocks with colorful panels that outlined and bisected the wearer’s form. Could bodyblocking be the new colorblocking?