Monday, January 30, 2012

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

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