Louis Verdad opened his Louver spring ’10 runway show at Downtown L.A. Fashion Week last night with a photo montage of the strong black woman’s A-list: Oprah, Whitney, Grace Jones, and the year’s enduring fashion muse, Michelle Obama.

Though last season Verdad delved into black, a cream palette dominates for spring—Verdad cited its “purity” as inspiration. There were cream gabardine skinny pants with crocheted inserts, cream strong-shouldered leather jackets and cream silk chiffon dresses with gold lamé hits, some belted with draped gold chain accents. While one can never have too much black, can one have too much of dairy hues? Probably. And the fit of a high-waisted pant brought back memories of the indomitable granny-panty look favored at NYFW by Donna Karan and Alexander Wang. But Verdad’s admiration for Michelle Obama’s “sharp and crisp appearance” (courtesy his program notes) was most evident in a small number of fresh, feminine white poplin shirts that wouldn’t be out of place in Gap’s Design Editions white shirt program with Vogue—or on an afternoon Parisian outing with French First Lady Carla Bruni (paparazzi scrum in tow, of course).