A collection's progress from conception to execution is really only half of its journey. After that, it enters the great big world. What happens to it there is out of a designer's hands, but a smart one will pay attention. Neil Barrett is one who does. He had a hit on his hands last fall with his statement sweatshirts, so he's repeated the trick every season since. But he noticed when the previous Fall collection was bought and worn that young guys chose to wear those sweatshirts as fully fledged outerwear, sans coat or jacket. Lo and behold, that's how he showed them tonight.

It's not that he didn't show coats. On the contrary, there were marbled-leather toggle coats, coats in ombrй that resembled Rothko canvases, and a stunning one that seemed to bleed from leather to suede. (It was, in fact, one giant skin with different treatments.) They too had been through the Neil Barrett Lab. Two years ago, Barrett had a hit with his exaggeratedly A-line military coats. Some were stiff and wide enough to look like the Liberty Bell. But he'd taken stock of how they workednot in the studio, but in the store and, as importantly, in the closet. What walked the runway tonight was the evolution of what began then. "You have to make it more real," he said. "By living it, you understand what's right for you and your brand."

Then, expand; now, contract. It was perhaps the contraction of those earlier ideas that gave the collection its from-concentrate tang. There was a long procession of clothes that will look good in stores. The ombrй pieces (great in black to blue; good in shades of brown) come to mind, and the guys who loved the geometric-paneled sweatshirts Barrett introduced last season will cotton to the lightning-clap versions here, the best with leather bolts pieced into the fabric itself. They all sat large (Barrett loves big, bouncy bonded fabrics) atop what was basically a single pant silhouette: slim, cropped, sometimes cuffed with sweatpant ribbing. By necessity, this collection didn't have the shock that some of the designer's best do. But by the cyclical law of the process, that may be the next round's privilege. This one read wearable. Which Neil knows firsthand is not the easiest thing to achieve. He's not just the president; he's a client, too, and this is how he wants to dress. "And," he added, "I have more trouble dressing myself than anyone else."
Matthew Schneier

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Our review will be posted shortly. See the complete collection by clicking the image at left.

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Our review will be posted shortly. See the complete collection by clicking the image at left.

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Freedom and independence were the words Cйdric Charlier bandied about today, as he talked about the inspiration he gleaned from a recent travel jaunt. A word he might have used, as well, was romance: Charlier's calf-grazing plissй skirts, fuzzy sweaters and bouclй coats, and emphasis on blush and silver gave this collection a kind of daydream-y quality that felt new from this designer. There were plenty of matter-of-fact items as well, like the blue button-down with rounded shoulders worn with matching narrow cropped pants, and a boxy silk jumpsuit. These were typically sharp. Likewise, Charlier's pop colors and printed neoprenes added the electric kick he likes in his collections. But the neoprene itself was notably softsatiny, almostand the blocked dresses with black strap detailing had a gentler attitude than the similar looks he showed on his runway for Spring. He's not a designer in any danger of oversugaring his clothes, but in this instance, a little sweetness went a long way.
Maya Singer

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Antonio Marras' references are always quite layered, much like the collages he creates in his sketchbook each season. For Pre-Fall, he began with the late Swiss artist Gret Lutz Stemmler, whom he met in Gallura, a region of northern Sardinia where she settled in 1963. "A slice of paradise surrounded by nature," is how Marras described it in the show notes. To honor his friend Stemmler, who passed away in 2012, Marras brought together the artist's Swiss heritage and Italian life. The storybook heroine Heidi, as well as her nemesis, Frдulein Rottenmeier, became characters in his collection.

The work was mostly grounded in mid-century silhouettes, with ornate embroideries and prints layered on to give the collection a rich feeling. Panels of carpetbag tapestry formed the sleeves of a rounded-shoulder coat in loden wool, which was finished off with vintage leather buttons in that same distinctive green. Neutral tweed pieces were embroidered with vibrant pink rosettes. A digital floral print in dusty pink was used on scuba fabric that had been sculpted into waist-cinching day dresses. (Marras is not one to use technical fabrics, but he felt that, in this circumstance, scuba was a modern way to add volume.)

Those pieces were decidedly made for Frдulein Rottenmeier, while the girlish baby-doll and trapeze dresses were designed with Heidi in mind. Edelweissthat distinctly alpine flowerappeared on a range of pink-and-blue frocks, most notably a tented number pleated from top to bottom. Marras did another version of that same dress in red tartan, layering black lace over the front. Styled with patent leather Dr. Martens sandals, there was certainly a nod to grunge. But the lace was too pretty and the pleats too sharp to truly compare it with tattered relics. Everything was pretty and, in a way, magical. Even the collection images felt like a storybook: The set was painted with scenes of the Alps, and a live goat was brought in to accompany the model.
Lauren Sherman

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Our review will be posted shortly. See the complete collection by clicking the image at left.

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Our review will be posted shortly. See the complete collection by clicking the image at left.

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Josef Hoflehner is not exactly a household name. But it was the photographer

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For Fall, Pringle of Scotland's Massimo Nicosia was thinking back. "It's a small-towner moving to the big city," he said. The smooth-faced boys lined up in his presentation today seemed to be fledglings making their first forays into the wild. Fashion is here to help them. "It's about building a wardrobe," Nicosia said. Sophistication is introduced piece by piece.

The charm of the collection was the way Nicosia hit at the juncture of innocence and experience. The guys were dressed in blue-chip cashmeres and trim scuba-jersey trousers, but still they wore their stubby, lug-soled shoes with what looked like little white gym socks. One had on a velvet evening jacket, but on top he tossed over an oversize bomberone made, it appeared on closer inspection, of knit, and fully reversible to boot. A styling tactic it may be, but it gave the collection a dose of the street-friendly vibe that is the stock-in-trade of most London menswear shows. That it was delivered at a presentation by one of the U.K.'s historic brands gave Pringle a boost that, at the very least, made it seem more sociable with its neighbors in London's jam-packed schedule. For any Pringle fans possessed of stiffer upper lips, the racks nearby were hung with plenty of lovely, often technically savvy sweaters, like a hand-knit fisherman's sweater with embroidered rope overlay, and a laser-cut mesh whose holes were woven together with gossamer cellophane yarn.
Matthew Schneier

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It used to be a dependable assumption that an Agi & Sam collection would run riot with color. It was a surprise, then, to find the duowho, in December, were crowned with the British Fashion Award for best emerging menswear designersin stark black and white. The change did them good. There were still plenty of their beloved prints, lifted from African woven fabrics and the Masai check that's a bit of a birthright for Agi Mdumulla (he descends from a Masai warrior, and his recent trip through Masai territory inspired the whole collection), but this outing had a sharper, more focused feel than last season's, thanks in part to the reduced palette.

In their show notes, Mdumulla and Sam Cotton riffed on the first world versus the third world, exploitation and appropriation. They imagined traditional Western garmentsdouble-breasted coats and tailored suit jackets, for exampletransformed by the addition of long, flowing layers, like those worn by African tribesmen. They even went so far as to create vinyl-printed tops with faux logos for African oil companies, selling the first world a bogus bill of goods. The political tangle of it was a tall order for a nine a.m. show. The luck of it was, the collection didn't need to rest on its concept to have immediate appeal.
Matthew Schneier

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Our review will be posted shortly. See the complete collection by clicking the image at left.

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As the music played at Burberry Prorsum's show today, the suspicion formed that we were listening to female voices interpreting Jeff Buckley songs. The mix of feminine and masculine was appropriate to the parade of boys passing on the catwalk, shoulders draped in ladylike souvenir silk scarves, torsos sheathed in string veststhe Brit equivalent of Stanley Kowalski's working-class white tee. You could imagine a bohemian sortmaybe even one of the four artists whom Christopher Bailey claimed as inspiration for his collectionsporting the combination to йpater le bourgeois at some point in uptight early-twentieth-century British society. One of those artists, Duncan Grant, has become something of an obsession for Bailey. After the show, he was exulting in the recent purchase of a huge Grant canvas.

A Painterly Journey was the title Bailey gave his collection, and an overt aestheticism shaped the spirit of the clothes: autumnal Arts and Crafts-y prints, hand-painted leathers, bags cut from the kind of carpets that would have lined the Bloomsbury Group's studies and studios. But Bailey also seemed to be tipping his cap to a traditional notion of the artist as a virile creator who won't bow to society's conventional mores. Grant, for instance, was blissfully bisexual his entire life, and Lucian Freud, another of Bailey's male muses, was a swordsman of legendary renown. Though there wasn't one hair on one chest on the Burberry catwalk (Bailey joked that he'd shaved them allat least, we hope it was a joke), the show nevertheless felt staged to communicate a message of masculinity so confident, sexually charged even, that it could survive the imposition of those silk scarves. Hence, the chest-baring string vests. The fringed suede jackets and the horse blankets casually thrown over shoulders were also part of the butch subtext. They may have been part of the styling story, but they were entirely compatible with the manly meat of the collection itself, which went deep on coats, flannel, and tweed, all grounded on terra firma by solid shoes.
Tim Blanks

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Last season, the collection that Fausto Puglisi sent down the Emanuel Ungaro runway was a coquettish, frou-filled affair. This time out, the buzzy Puglisi opted for a grown-up tone and much more urbane silhouettes. Hemlines erred long, baggy trousers had a masculine toughness, and elsewhere the emphasis was on sharp, kimono-inspired shapes. But all those elements really just served to underline Puglisi's graphic theme, which did link this collection back to Spring's. Puglisi continued to show off his knack for juxtaposing patternshis way of mixing zebra stripe, herringbone, and chevron was particularly playful and compellingand for elaborating them in interesting ways. Many of his animal prints, for instance, were developed to look like they'd been inked in the style of antique Chinese illustrations. That was a nice touchit introduced a suggestion of softness that was missing from this largely astringent outing, what with its focus on a black-and-white palette cut with bright orange and lime green. The textural variety helped, as well; the squishy knit wool used in a long, fitted T-shirt dress and the mink chevron-stripe on a coat and along the front of a wool herringbone skirt looked good. Not everything here workeda lot of the asymmetric pieces came off rather manneredbut in general Puglisi's choice to pare back served him well.
Maya Singer

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Natalie Ratabesi showed off her moody side this season. "Rebel schoolgirl" was the theme du jour, and the Philosophy designer did well by it, conjuring the attitude of sneering young ladyhood without defaulting to the literal. There were slouchy knits in various fuzzy textures of mohair, an emphasis on school uniform grays and burgundies, and miniskirts with a sculptural flare, probably the season's key silhouette. The pieces that made the strongest impression were the brocades in abstract, punkish patternsthe best, in burgundy, had the look of a wall with the paint peeling off of it.

But Ratabesi's quieter looks were worthy of attention, toocase in point, the cropped gray mohair sweater with an attached long layer of sheer black chiffon. And the evening look in mikadoa pairing of that key skirt shape with an oversize tee with ruffled sleevesstood out precisely for its low-impact, unstudied-ness. (Ratabesi also reversed the trick, proposing an embellished formal jacket for day.) All told, this collection hit on a tone that felt right for Philosophy, and right for Ratabesiyoung posh girl who mostly doesn't give a toss. It rhymes with the looks Alberta Ferretti designed for Philosophy back in its grunge-era heyday. One more thing worth calling out: this season's short-heel, patent leather Chelsea boots. Chances are they made it onto more than a few editors' pre-fall shopping lists today.
Maya Singer

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After switching things up with a softer Spring show full of wispy slipdresses and playful polka dots, Sportmax returned to familiar territory for Pre-Fall. Inspired by Japanese photographer Maiko Haruki's chiaroscuro studies of light and shadow, the new lineup featured graphic Prince of Wales checks, crisp tailoring, andof courseplenty of luxe outerwear. The aforementioned plaid came on a variety of pieces including a rounded coat; an intarsia knit pullover; a slim pencil skirt; and a loose, printed silk dress. That frock was cinched at the waist with a wide leather band, which was incorporated throughout the collection. The belts created a flattering hourglass shape on several of the straight sheaths and menswear-ish toppers. And as for the label's signature coats, there was at least one terrific option for every day of the weekall of them cut from sumptuous double-faced wool or cashmere. The clear standout, though, was an asymmetric style that combined cobalt blue and black with a contrasting white underlay. Now that's sharp.
Brittany Adams

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Our review will be posted shortly. See the complete collection by clicking the image at left.

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"It's my first men's collectionever," Diesel Black Gold's Andreas Melbostad said backstage after his Florentine show. Pitti Uomo is a large and intimidating stage on which to make your debut, but if Melbostad was fazed by the occasion, he didn't show it. His approach was methodical and, more to the point, probably the right one given the circumstances. He didn't shoot out of the gate with an entirely new proposition; he identified the core of what Diesel does well and offered a stark, pared-back version of it that plays well with the biker-chick look he's been plying at Diesel Black Gold's womenswear. (To underscore the point, Melbostad sent out a few girls in custom looks.)

Diesel's hard-rocking fans should find plenty to tickle their studded, high-shine fancies. The flashier among them will thrill to the silver-foiled separates, and maybe the jeans fairly wallpapered in studs. This reviewer inclined more to the fur-trimmed hooded parkas. But whatever one liked or didn't here, there was no disputing that this was a palate-cleansing first step toward a new, more cohesive Black Goldthough it may be a misnomer to use the word "cleansing" for a collection this treated, oiled, foiled, and spackled. The D in "Diesel" might as well stand for "denim," but in view of the fact that DBG is the company's most luxurious line, Melbostad shied away from it in its plain form. Instead, he drew on the company's yen for denim innovation to create glossy, slick fabrics out of humble cotton that looked like patent leather, vinyl, and eel skin. A working knowledge of alchemy can only serve him well as he starts on collection number two.
Matthew Schneier

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Our review will be posted shortly. See the complete collection by clicking the image at left.

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