New York Fashion Week was paved with gold garments.

I was curious to see if the would-be trend would make it to the Oscars red carpet on Sunday, but no.

Most of Hollywood chose to ride out the recession with pale hues of old world silver screen glamor.

Sarah Jessica Parker called the shade of her fairy tale gown “barely mint” and Penelope Cruz chose a 60-year-old off-white Pierre Balmain dress that looked more than a bit like a cathedral-worthy wedding gown.

Viola Davis is the only one who opted for an Oscars-statue-like gold metallic sleeveless dress by Reem Acra.

You can see most of the top dresses if you’d like to check out the results for those of you who voted for Best Dressed Actress.

Jennifer Aniston’s metallic Valentino dress seems to be the crowd favorite. And in the blogosphere, most people are proclaiming her the victor over Angelina Jolie. It’s so hard not to compare the two.

Anyway, New York’s presentation of the Fall ‘09 collections seemed to highlight a definite show of confidence in consumer frivolity and prowess despite the current state of the economy.

We don’t have dramatic shifts in hemlines to suggest the up- or downswings of our economy, but I’d like to think that having models that looked dipped in gold is an optimistic sign.

The 14-carat looks showed up everywhere.

There was gold amidst the girly, impressionist inspired whimsical prints and florals of Tracy Reese (top, left).

There was bold metal during the shoulder pad-heavy, party-on neon extreme 80s revival of Marc Jacobs (at right, with the black hat).

And opposite in the sparkly hat is a look from Erin Fetherston who’s show was full of baby doll dresses, lots of very full, ballerina girly tulle skirts and jackets with bows like Babes in Toyland go to the opera.

There was goddess gold at the nomad-inspired showing of Diane von Furstenburg (top, right). And dramatic flowing gold at the Georges Chakra show (at left with the two models passing each other).

There were showings at Miss Sixty, Herve Leger by Max Azria (the one shoulder dress without the hat at left), and BCBG Max Azria (at right), even Carolina Herrera flaunted a gorgeous strapless deep golden frock (at right above with the bell sleeves).

Pamella Roland designer Pamella DeVos said that she was planning to focus more on practical items because of the recession.

But apparently that means that gold floor-length gowns must be a new fall necessity. That’s the dress from Roland’s collection on the right, below the BCBG Max Azria look (almost all the models for this collection wore skin tight metallic gold leggings).

Retail agents responsible for stocking stores with clothes that people will want to buy have said that people likely won’t be shopping with abandon for a while, but when they shop they’ll be looking for something special.

Perhaps, that explains the new golden rule.