The spring 2010 collections featured at Gen Art’s 12th-annual Fresh Faces in Fashion hit some familiar notes heard earlier this season: From the alluring and exotic—underwear-as-outerwear and North African motifs—to the styling gaffes that befell Lindsay Lohan in her ill-fated debut at Ungaro last month (specifically, the nipple pasties—even long tasseled ones do not a party make).

Of the five labels (Leyendecker, Seneca Rising, Valerj Pobega, Rory Beca and Morphine Generation designer Erik Hart’s diffusion menswear line MG Black Label), the most compelling collection of the evening belonged to Leyendecker, with sophisticated silk voile cocktail dresses with cutout details and Bedouin-chic one-shoulder dresses in sand hues, wrapped in intricate scarves.

Erik Hart is capable of pitch-perfect menswear, and MG Black did have some worthy chambray button-front shirts and waxed cotton trenches. But the collection felt unfocused and indecisive, with models donning motorcycle jackets and cropped trousers, unsure if they wanted to be James Dean or Thom Browne circa 2005.

Pobega’s show wins the Kawakubo-theatrics award, with models sporting ghoulish, braided headgear across their faces as they flaunted menacing silk charmeuse sleeveless dresses and deconstructed kimonos.

Photos: Leyendecker (top), MG Black Label (middle), Valerj Pobega (bottom).