Designers who show their work during Olympus Fashion Week – which begins Friday and runs through February 10 – aren’t shy about reeling off their inspirations. Their written statements, provided to each guest along with a list of the runway looks, sometimes make sense. Other times they read like incoherent memos-to-self that skip from “Medieval monasteries” to “tranquil island breezes” to “’40s Hollywood glamour.”

Designer Yigal Azrouel has a more straightforward approach. For fall 2006, his collection (and the intimate setting in which it will be shown Friday) was inspired by one simple object: a vase.

In fact, this is not such a simple object. Created by Dror Benshetrit, an artist and childhood friend of Mr. Azrouel’s, the curvy vase looks crushed and cracked, yet it is beautiful for its flaws and fully functional. Dubbed by Mr.Benshetrit “The Vase of Phases,” the item suggests a narrative of transformation and contrast: On one side it is smooth and perfect, but turn it around and it appears nearly destroyed.

From here, it could all devolve into more fashion mumbo-jumbo about inspirations. But Mr. Azrouel kept close to this idea and developed an aesthetic that runs clearly through the collection, his broadest since opening his own shop in the meatpacking district in 2003. Known for a talent with dresses and draping, the Yigal Azrouel brand has been moving toward a wider collection and this season will offer more sportswear, blouses, and pants than in previous years.Though the vase, sold at the MoMa Design Store, is made only in black or white, Mr. Azrouel’s clothes include deep browns, bright blues and purples, touched off with neutrals.

To show it all off, the 33-year-old Israel-born designer has ignored the call of the runway in favor of an intimate presentation in his garment district studio. Models will be posed on chairs and raised, multilevel platforms in a dramatic setting designed by Mr. Benshetrit.

“I’m kind of bored by the traditional runway show,” Mr. Azrouel said. “You don’t see the details.”

And in this collection, you don’t want to miss the details. In piece after piece, the idea of change or contrast pops up, sometimes overtly, sometimes subtly. Rough meets smooth. Contemporary abuts traditional. Severe morphs into romantic.

During a recent casting call, a model in a pair of slim brown capris walked by as Mr. Azrouel watched her, then pointed out the hem of the trousers: modern, in that it was deliberately asymmetrical, yet classic with a row of knobby buttons inspired by menswear.

An abstract blue-and-black print silk dress gave the designer a chance to point out a literal reference to the vase. “With this print, I break up the color, but in a floral way,” he said.

Other looks depend on contrasts of fabric to make the point.A coarse brown wool wrap sweater is paired with a beautiful, flowing dress underneath. “I like texture, but I also like things to be very feminine and chic,” Mr. Azrouel said. “The texture adds personality behind it.”

That sort of thinking spills over into his casting choices.”I’m looking for women who are feminine with a kind of edge, but who have personality and confidence,” he said after asking a model about where she’s from. “I’m not looking for a supermodel. I’m designing for a real woman. I’m not designing for models and celebrities.”

That said, celebrities do find their way to his closet. Catherine Zeta-Jones, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Rachel McAdams have all turned up in his form-flattering dresses. But what sort of “real woman” does he envision in his clothes? “She can be anything. She has to have a sense of fashion,” he said. “I’m not an avant-garde designer. I want women to wear my stuff.”

In the past, Mr. Azrouel has presented his collections in cozy, intimate spaces including an Upper East Side townhouse and his own shop on 14th Street. But those shows still followed the runway concept. Putting on a presentation in which the audience moves around the models (rather than the other way around) allows him the chance to interact with press, buyers, and clients.

And like the clothing, the setting for the show carries the theme of experiencing both past and present at the same time.Worn-out mannequins, antique chairs, 19th-century portraits and frames, etched mirrors, and a slightly shabby chandelier will decorate the room. Behind it all, the walls will be coated with blackboard paint featuring sketches in white chalk. Models will be scattered on a jagged series of platforms cut at random heights and angles, highlighted by lighting from different directions.

“We’re playing with this whole feeling of the way the light reflects and beaks up,” Mr. Benshetrit said, going back once again to the “broken” edges of his creation. “It’s rough, but sleek.”

Mr. Benshetrit was brought into the project early on. “Yigal was inspired by my vase, and he asked if I would like to collaborate and art direct the show,” Mr. Benshetrit said. “I applied some thinking about transformation, something that has an experience. It’s not attached to one specific material.”

As the principal of his own mutlidisciplinary design firm, Studio Dror, Mr. Benshetrit is familiar with applying an idea to a variety of forms. His work has been commissioned by Kiehl’s, Levi’s, and Bombay Sapphire and includes the creation of Web sites, products, and interiors, as well as branding.

He’s also no stranger to collaborating with his old friend: He designed the exposed brick interior of the Yigal Azrouel boutique (408 W. 14th St., between Ninth and Tenth avenues, 212-929-7525). “We appreciate each other’s style,” he said.

For Mr. Azrouel, style is something that just seemed to pop into the picture.

“I never thought that I’d be a fashion designer,” he said.

After going to Paris to work in a retail shop that a family member owned, he went to a Dior show that put him in mind of fashion. He tried his hand by “deconstructing some vintage pieces for friends.”

In June 1997, he launched his own business, without formal design training. His first entry into New York’s Fashion Week came in February 1999, and in October 2002 Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus helped launch a repositioned line of dresses. His freestanding boutique opened in February 2003.

What’s he doing after his show? He’s not going to be taking it easy. “I was already on vacation, to Morocco. I love the smells, the culture, mountains, desert. I was thinking about my next project – and surfing.”

True to form, even the vacation was all about contrast.