Preen s "Power" dress has been popping up more and more on young Hollywood starlets, and its snug fit, cutouts, and ultrahigh hem provided a continuing template for a sexy, spot-on Fall collection that designers Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi said was influenced by Quadrophenia and Blade Runner. The former inspired the mod A-line shapes of a few shifts and the oversize black-and-white houndstooth of the coats, some of which were accented with big hunks of black Mongolian lamb. The latter movie s Sean Young character, "an android who didn t know she was an android," was the model for the fit-and-flare apron looks.
In the end, though, this show was really all about the body-con dresses. Cutouts are Fall s first big trend, and Preen has pushed the concept further than any of the look s proponents so far. Many of the pieces won t, ahem, cut it in the real world. A leather dress with slits below the bust, at the waist, and up and down both sides is fit only for the inside of a very dark club. And global warming or not, there s nothing practical about a jacket with rib-shaped holes in the back, although sans cutouts its strong shoulders and sharp lines would make it a fast seller. Without a doubt, the collection s less aggressive numbers will have legs. It won t be a surprise when the frocks that closed the show, with their swirls of rainbow-bright stretch hammered silk and white mesh insets, land on the red carpet.
