Spring clothes are just getting into stores.
Yet the only thing New York fashion watchers are talking about this week is what they’ll be wearing next fall.
The first two days of Olympus Fashion Week were filled with runway presentations boasting plenty of toasty new cool-weather clothes for both sexes.
Alvin Valley showed a nostalgic collection that would be what Gatsby girl Daisy Buchanan might have worn on a fox hunt – like fitted safari suits.
At Rebecca Taylor’s show, the clothes looked like what one would get if you combined the closets of Stevie Nicks and Holly Hobby.
There were plenty of floaty dresses and blouses in crisp autumn shades like teal and maroon, as well as practical separates like pleated wool skirts and cropped pants.
At Sass & Bide, there were some seriously great tweed jackets – not to mention sexy pants and flashy little goddess-style minis.
But it was the models’ hairdos that stole the show, especially the ones with tiny plastic motorcycles and ponies mired in their pompadours.
Kenneth Cole’s women’s clothes were great (especially the drop-waist dresses), but it was his men’s collection that really got our attention, with its focus on classic chic and “Ocean’s 11” glam.
Perry Ellis’ Patrick Robinson took the glamour theme and ran with it all the way back to the ’30s, with a collection that evoked memories of post-Prohibition high-living. Checks, tweeds and pinstripes were all part of the cocktail.
Breaking all the rules was British menswear designer Andrew Buckler, who turned in a rock ‘n’ roll aesthetic – part Marilyn Manson, part Fonzie-gone-punk.
Think of a mechanic with seriously good dress sense (and a taste for pastel pinks and yellows) and you’ve got it.