TWISTED TAILOR
New York: Alexander Wang often explores his more serious side during Pre-Fall, allowing his primary collections to extend into a sportier experimentation. This season the designer maintained that trend, concentrating on suiting and menswear influences, albeit with typically edgy Wang twists. Tailored pieces were boxy with knife pleat detailing and off-kilter layering played a crucial role; leather miniskirts topped
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LADY WHO PLAYS
London: Giles Deacon created a rare combination for Pre-Fall, a sophisticated lady who lunches with a quirky sense of humor. Heavy satin created firm luxury, but never looked stuffy due to the sharp silhouette of full skirts, fitted peplum jackets and slim trousers, while playful bird prints and graphics lightened the mood even further. Refined dropped hem dresses
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PLAYFUL PARISIAN
New York: Parisian café culture provided the imagined backdrop for Stacy Bendet’s Pre-Fall collection, a setting well-suited to her breezy, feminine designs popular with many trendy ingénues. Often known for party dresses, her collection shifted to focus on both pants and outerwear this season, introducing printed palazzos and velvet flares as well as knit capes and caftans. Dresses and
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PROGRESSIVE DECO
New York: Rachel Roy’s interpretation of modern art-deco for Pre-Fall resulted in an urban, versatile collection of separates with an astute use of print mixing and graphic color blocking. A progressive palette of primarily cinnamon, turquoise, black and white helped push the ensembles forward, adding edge to slick leather pants and a-line minis as well as stark florals
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SOFTER DIMENSIONS
New York: Hervé Léger’s continued popularity is a testament to both the wide appeal of the bandage dress and to the creativity of Max and Lubov Azria, the designers behind the label since 2007. Although they could easily coast on Hollywood’s appetite for body conscious looks, the duo chose to expand the collection for Pre-Fall, experimenting with flirtatious a-line
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REFORMED REBEL
Milan: Dan and Dean Caten’s muse is always pushing the envelope of youthful, bold fashion, adding a healthy dose of swagger to current junior trends. For Pre-Fall the designers chose to place their muse squarely in the 60s, tailoring the era’s pencil skirts, trenches, and crewneck knits for a slim, body conscious fit and experimenting with bright argyles and
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SENSORY STIMULATION
Milan: Layering is a perfect outlet for Missoni as their iconic dimensional knitwear makes an even greater impact when piled on with abandon. Pre-Fall served as a platform for cozy combinations of slim intarsia knit turtlenecks, long patterned vests, draped coats and clingy pencil skirts. Without the tonal color combinations, such as plum and lavender or saffron and pumpkin,
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THE LADY AND THE INGÉNUE
New York: Although Alberta Ferretti’s Pre-Fall collection included all the luxurious details and elegance expected from the Philosophy label, the presentation never settled on a target customer, swinging between mature overcoats and restrained skirts suits and more youthful counterparts, metallic silk cocktail dresses and babydoll silhouettes. This lack of cohesion detracted from all the sumptuous
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A SHORT FLIRTATION
New York: Opening Ceremony’s in-house line took a page from one of their most successful collaborators, Chloë Sevigny, and looked to the shortest of hemlines for Pre-Fall 2012. When concentrating on flirty babydoll dresses and skater skirts, the collection hit the right note for this wildly popular brand, creating the type of vintage inspired and colorful pieces their
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CARTOON COUTURE
New York: Quirky society girls straight out of Gossip Girl mingled with upscale, tartan-loving punks in Moschino Cheap and Chic’s latest collection. Regardless the inspiration, each muse played a game of playful dress up, mixing printed skater skirts with ankle socks and sandals, or combining pastel pink with vibrant chartreuse. Witty trompe l’oeil touches ran throughout, from faux cross
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HUNTING SEASON
New York: Sarah Burton channeled McQueen’s fascination with traditional English riding culture for the Pre-Fall McQ collection, producing an edgy update on wardrobe staples perfect for a country manor. The designer married the city and the wilderness with forest green velvet riding coats, tailored tweed hunting suits, colorblocked capes, quilted motorcycle jackets and zipper embellished leggings. If the theme
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TAILORED PUNCH
New York: Honor designer Giovanna Randall turned away from saccharine sweetness for Pre-Fall, choosing a more honed and tailored aesthetic. The saturated, vibrant colors so popular with designers lately lent her elongated blazers, skinny stretch trousers and structured dresses an automatic sense of modernity, while abstract brushstroke prints added dimension to silk jumpsuits. Leather touches toughened up the more
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ACIDIC RETRO
London: An acidic take on retro suffused Erdem Moralioglu’s latest collection, a bombastic update of prim classics like the pencil skirt, cardigan sets and small collar silk blouses. A wild, unexpected jolt of tangerine, high-octane yellow and sapphire blue played against a base of camel and black, creating a slightly disorienting juxtaposition which worked best via oversize placed florals.
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EVENT READY
New York: Catherine Maladrino’s vision this season centered on cocktail hour and the red carpet, producing seductive jewel tone gowns and lace dresses. Slim, spaghetti strap sheaths topped with long sleeve, lace overlay looked sophisticated and serious, while a full-skirted, crochet dress clearly took its inspiration from Alaïa’s iconic technique. Among all the floor-length draping and flirtatious party-wear, a
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BOLD MINIMAL
New York: The influence of Celiné’s Phoebe Philo is reaching far and wide among fashion designers this season, as many look to sleek, modern silhouettes, unadorned separates and large-scale floral prints. Tibi’s Amy Smilovic went in a similar direction for Pre-Fall, merging her new minimal sensibility with a bold color palette and experimental exploded floral print. The resulting collection
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