Of the slew of references — a Diane Arbus portrait of identical twin girls, Romy Schneider, Death in Venice, school uniforms and Tina Barney’s contemporary portraits of upper-class Europeans — Erdem Moralioglu worked with for pre-fall, showing for the first time in New York, most dated to the late Sixties. He liked the jaunty shapes of the era: Watteau-back shifts, jackets with sailor collars and a tea-length skirt that melded ladylike propriety and boyish prep.
There was something beautifully twisted about the bourgeois palette of red, navy and black-and-white worked into rich optic clashes on fancy fabric treatments, such as floral jacquards, lace and jeweled diamond patterns. All of it was framed in neat silhouettes, with the collection’s pretty primness softened by the cozy familiarity of Breton-striped sweaters and Aran knits.