a little turn on the catwalk

The line between dressing for the office and dressing for the opera gets obscured by rich damasks, fur trimmings, and gobs of costume jewelry in Vera Wang's Pre-Fall 2013 collection.

The offering is heavy on the kind of sparkle generally associated with dressing for a special occasion, but applied to clothing that would otherwise look like daywear. A shift dress cut from a shiny orange and gray jacquard looked utterly luxurious paired with leather elbow-length gloves, but the suit trimmed with silk ruffles at the shoulders turns up the glamour in a different and unexpected way.

Photos courtesy of Vera Wang.

"The future is about new construction," said Francisco Costa after the Pre-Fall 2013 presentation for Calvin Klein. "You have to show something new."

What's new at this brand is a focus on generous proportions. Costa put rounded shoulders on generous coats belted at the waist like robes, and let slim skirts and dresses fall below the knee. Some of the looks were paired with turtlenecks or dickies (and a few were made from shaved mink), which gave the show a monastic feeling.

Not that there wasn't a little kink, too. One of those coats was cut from a shiny light-brown vinyl, and there were a few pieces — like a sleeveless shirt with a peplum and an overcoat — made from black leather.

Photos courtesy of Calvin Klein.

A liberal sprinkling of black leather added some edge to Rachel Zoe's Pre-Fall 2013 collection. Her penchant for '70s tailoring and luxurious fabric choices are still there, but with the addition of shorts, trousers, and fingerless gloves cut from cowhide in the mix, this offering was a little more masculine and a little tougher than its predecessors. A peachy tuxedo jacket looked fresh for day when paired with a knit sweater in the same color family, but a similar jacket covered in gold sequins provides a fresh alternative to evening gowns and cocktail dresses.

Photos courtesy of Rachel Zoe.

Donna Karan has had her late husband, the artist Stephan Weiss, on her mind a lot lately, so it's no surprise his work influenced her Pre-Fall 2013 collection. Karan's recent book about Weiss and the New York exhibition of his work — both titled Connecting the Dots — could very well share their name with this offering, which is predicated on round shapes cut from neoprene, jersey, and stretch cotton. The best outerwear pieces here were generous, cocoon-like, and featured rounded shoulders. Circle skirts appeared more than once, either attached to dresses or worn with well-tailored blazers. The color palette stayed serious, sticking to black, white, navy blue, and brown, but Karan had fun with adding sheer panels to a few skirts and sculptural pleating on some of her cocktail dresses.

Photos courtesy of Donna Karan

There's a subtle '60s feeling in Rag & Bone's Pre-Fall 2013 collection, which owes a lot to designers David Neville and Marcus Wainwright thinking ahead to their Fall 2013 show. Wainwright says they're working on a "'60s, Pan-Am thing" to present in February. For Pre-Fall, the graphic pop of that decade gets shrunk to small-scale prints in black and white, and the A-line shape of a peach tweed skirt points to the bold simplicity of the era. The mock Chelsea collar attached to one sleeveless shirt by with a clever use of cord and grommets is a fresh take on another look from the period.

A military jacket handed down from her mother, Reva, inspired Tory Burch's Pre-Fall 2013 collection, but the garments include fabric treatments soldiers don't commonly wear. The embroidered epaulets on one navy-blue cardigan would be out of place on the battlefield, and the same goes for the beading that adorns nearly every garment in the offering. Even the pieces that aren't affixed with paillettes or bits of lace are cut from intricately woven cloth with ethnic-leaning patterns. Come to think of it, what better time to represent your tribe than during a war?

Photos courtesy of Tory Burch

The birth of her second child in September had Rachel Comey "thinking about different body shapes. Like those without perfect waists," she said. As a result, much of her Pre-Fall 2013 collection was easy to wear, soft, and in some cases even a little boxy. A single-breasted coat dress fell straight from the shoulders to right above the knee, and a wool motorcycle-style jacket was cut generously. A sleeveless leather shirt floated away from the body, as did a number of other shirts, mimicking the A-line skirts they were sometimes paired with.

That doesn't mean there weren't figure-flattering pieces, too. One sweater depicting the Brooklyn Bridge in black and white stayed close to the body, and so did a black dress with embroidered accents.

Photos: Gus Powell courtesy of Rachel Comey

Don't be fooled by the simple shapes in Erdem Moralioglu's Pre-Fall 2013 collection; the pieces in this offering are actually incredibly complex, thanks to the designer's masterful combinations of materials like PVC, leather, lace, and organza.

Moralioglu said he was inspired by the 1965 film Pleasures of the Flesh, which made him think about "mixing things that don't really go together, of things that are a little bit wrong." That manifested in a number of ways: a prim floral-printed silk was cut into a houndstooth pattern and then sewn onto a transparent raincoat, and huge multicolored paillettes that looked like fish scales were layered over another flowery dress. A closer look at a pair of what appeared to be lace trousers revealed that they're actually made from leather pretending to be broderie anglaise, and the yoke of one sweet-looking pink, yellow, and blue dress was made from clear PVC.

By applying new fabrication techniques to classic shapes, Moralioglu freed himself up for a little exploration while ensuring that these clothes will make sense to customers when they hit the selling floor. And what's more exciting than people actually wearing these rather experimental looks?

Photos courtesy of Erdem.

If what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, what happens when you're on the way there? That's the story Carol Lim and Humberto Leon were trying to tell with their Opening Ceremony Pre-Fall 2013 collection.

At the outset, many of the looks in this visual accounting of a young woman's first trip to Sin City were crisp works in black and white, like a pair of belted wide-leg trousers or a black sequined dress with sheer white sleeves that zipped up the front. The visual interest picked up as the collection progressed with the addition of a dizzying pattern of thin, undulating black and white stripes and the first accent colors: pale blue, purple, and red. Eventually these were joined by a deep blue that was used in sweaters and a romper covered in paillettes, and a burgundy jacquard used for a few of the final pieces. That fabric looked especially great as the sleeves and collar of a black raglan-sleeve jacket with a plain black bodice.

The spirit of riding a roaring Harley down an open highway permeated Phillip Lim's Pre-Fall 2013 collection. If the leather jackets and pants with quilted knee panels didn't express that feeling enough, the stylized phoenix and zippers that acted as decorations should.

Those pieces were appealing enough on their own, but Lim balanced them with garments that even dedicated pedestrians will want to wear. Of note: otherwise simple skirts featuring asymmetrical hems, outerwear with rounded shoulders, oversize knitwear pieces, and a pale green parka that looked perfectly cozy paired with a navy snood and maroon trousers.

Photos courtesy of 3.1 Phillip Lim.