Pre-What?

So. Let's review. Spring, Summer (as in S/S), Fall and Winter (as in F/W), right? Hmm. Actually, it's more like S/S, Pre-Fall, F/W, Resort (comes out around December/January - theoretically, for those who are going somewhere sunny).

I've been trying to build the perfect, perfect pre-fall post for you over the weekend... but then I got completely side-tracked by Monday with the update of the pre-fall shows. Oh, my dear, dear Oscar de la Renta, you have captured my heart.

(Just remember, pre-fall comes out between summer and fall... filling in the odd gap during production periods.) It looks like we're pretty much sticking to old trends, revisiting them with nostalgic fervor. There's still a lot of men's wear love, trousers, earthy-jeweled tones, over-sized jackets... and a mix of different things from different designers. We'll visit other collections later this week but let's focus on this darling pre-fall collection. *Swoon.

Photo Courtesy: Style.com

"You have to make a woman fall in love with your clothes." - Oscar de la Renta on how to get people to buy luxury goods during the recession

(I'm in love.)

This collection is so, so lovely, it's driving me crazy. I've been pretty much thinking about this pre-fall collection since I first laid my eyes on it. Oh. My. Perfect peg-leg trousers, bright tweeds, coats & jackets (admittedly, everyone's favourite part of fall, right?).

The coat with the embellishments in the second set of pictures, in the middle, is gorgeous. I have a penchant for detailed cardigans. I think it has a lot to do with it's grandma-ish style and it feels sort of vintage*... I mean, c'mon, there's a lot of good things going on for beaded and/or appliqued sweater wear. Somehow, Mr. de la Renta, has combined 2 of my favourite things and made it into one (grandma styling + details = perfection).

By "pre-fall," that coat will be hanging in my closet.
By fall, that coat will be hanging on my shoulders. Or. However you'd describe someone wearing a coat.

*I'm not a big fan of treasure hunting at local thrift stores so most vintage-looking thing I own is either: faux-vintage or stolen from my grandmother's closet.

I heart you, solely.

In some alternate universe, Chie Mihara and I are best friends and she sends me a pair of her shoes every month to remind me that she loves me. Unfortunately, I don't live in that universe... In the one I currently reside in, I have to buy my own Chie's.

I watched an adorable video of Chie Mihara talking about her shoes, her design philosophy, and I think she's the cutest person ever.

"It's really a man's industry so I like to take a lot of good things about men's shoes and put them in the women's shoes cos I think we deserve it" - Chie Mihara.



Honestly, CM is like a super creative podiatrist. The anatomic foot bed she talks about in her video is amazing. It's like... your feet is cushioned by a cloud. I've hiked up and down small hills, walked around for hours in 4 inch CMs and everything is fine. My feet don't hurt and I don't feel like I have to kill anyone. Sometimes, after a long day of heels that hurt me, I am the grumpiest person you'll ever meet.



High Snobette has a preview of the CM S/S 2010 collection up - it has only made my obsession worse. I also saw a preview of the collection on the Bromley Group NYC's Youtube channel. CM is bringing in some new elements: a men's line (for the uber metro-sexual man - just my opinion) and a bridal collection. The girl in the spring/summer preview video is talking about shoes in this monotoned way that makes me want to kill myself. Seriously. Let me do it. I can do a much better job.