Sticking Around

For the past few weeks in the northeast, it’s been easy at times to forget what month it is and how much of winter still lay ahead of us. We’ve had almost absurdly warm days. Snow that has fallen only to quickly melt away. I’ve stopped carrying my gloves along with me during my nighttime wanderings and considered, briefly, wearing my skirts without tights. It’s been in all of this seasonal dysmorphia that I’ve made my way through the pre-Fall 2012 collections.

More than in past minor seasons, my bookmark folder overflowed as my want, my need really, for those traditional markers of fall and winter overtook my senses. Heavier trenches and long leather gloves and wool blazers.

At A.L.C.

At Thakoon

At Balmain

At Nina Ricci

At Erdem

At Christian Dior

But there were still reminders of the warm weather that will be at its apex when these clothes arrive in store.

At Zero Maria Cornejo

At Jenni Kayne

At Rag & Bone

At Derek Lam

The pre-Fall narrative was filled with the story of Spring/Summer 2012 and the way in which the trends of that season lingered. There are always a few holdovers, but this year the major trends cast a much longer shadow. The peplum, the trend of Spring/Summer 2012, showed no signs of leaving us behind. In fact, its dominance only seemed to grow.

At 3.1 Phillip Lim

At. A.L.C.

At Nanette Lepore

At DKNY

At Thakoon

At Antonio Berardi

At Givenchy

At Gucci

At Rebecca Minkoff

At Calvin Klein

At Stella McCartney

At Alexander McQueen

The florals, from the feminine to the psychadelic, also held over from the previous season. Though now they often came in the traditionally deeper and more muted colors of fall.

At Erdem

At DKNY

At Oscar de la Renta

At Burberry Prorsum

At No. 21

At Doo.Ri

At Tracy Reese

Many of the neons faded from view but one, the blazing, electric blue, was still to be found in garments of all sorts.

At Dsquared²

At Jenni Kayne

At Preen

At Issey Miyake

At Erin Featherston

At Roksanda Ilincic

At Rachel Roy

At Jonathan Saunders

But even with so much continuity, there was still a sense of things to come. Ladylike sheaths, demure and sophisticated, were seen in a range of collections. They brought a seriousness to the season that I think we'll continue to see for fall as the bright and sometimes dizzying effects of spring fade away.

At Jason Wu

At Gucci

At Yves Saint Laurent

At Louis Vuitton

At Givenchy

At Thakoon

At Celine

Soon enough the Fall/Winter 2012 season will begin. And with it, I hope, the cold will finally settle in.


Photos via

Wrapped Up: Pre-Fall 2012

I knew from the first pre-Fall show that the coats were going to be a problem. Not a life-threatening or earth-shattering one. Just an issue of large numbers and limited space.

During the Fall/Winter seasons, I always seem to miss the coats. Glance over them on the way to trends in hemlines and colors and cuts and shapes. Though the design of coats can be affected by the changing winds of the season, the need for them to perform their primary function is paramount. In the culture of the fashion world where popularity rises and falls so quickly, a coat is one of the few years-long investment pieces left. In a year, you may rid your closet of that pair of brightly colored denim but rarely will your coat meet the same fate.

In those in between seasons, the Resorts and the pre-Falls, the way that I digest the clothes being offered to me shifts. I often take them in one gluttonous go. In the end, I come out with more bookmarks of things that I just love. That have nothing to add to the discussion of what’s in and what’s out, what’s fresh and what’s stale. And so my pre-Fall 2012 folder found itself stuffed to the brim with coats of all sorts.

Some styles of coats, the peacoats and the duffle coats and the trenches, never fade from view. Hundreds of years old, they come with histories that often trace back to a military origin. They are the coats that most people return to time and time again. Because they never fall out of style. Of course, some designers take those classic shapes and play with them, twist them just enough to give you the hint of something new.

At No. 21

At Dsquared²

At Erdem

At Jason Wu

Some use patterns to add an element of interest.

At Erdem

At Band of Outsiders

At Jason Wu

At Doo.Ri

At Yigal Azrouël

While others play with the shapes, blowing them up and exaggerating elements, to offer coats that would overwhelm all but the right person.

At No. 21

At Prabal Gurung

At Maison Martin Margiela

At 3.1 Phillip Lim

At Lanvin

At Doo.Ri

At Ports 1961

At Gucci

At Chloé

And then there are those who live on the extremes. The stripped down and pulled back.

At Alberta Ferretti

At MaxMara

At Thakoon

At Costume National

At Peter Som

And the super luxe for those rarefied few.

At Derek Lam

At Burberry Prorsum

At Louis Vuitton

At Alberta Ferretti

At Narciso Rodriguez

Photos via