Pre-Fall 2013 BCBG Max Azria

By Brittany Adams 

Last season at BCBG Max Azria, it was difficult to see past the Helmut Newton-esque leather harnesses shown with each look. With their new pre-fall collection, designers Max and Lubov Azria are getting back in touch with the label's softer side, and it wasn't just because they nixed the bondage styling. Sensual georgette ruffles (a major Spring trend) fluttered along the neckline and sleeves of mid-length dresses with nipped-in waists. That silhouette had a distinct 1940s feel, as did the cropped wide-leg trousers and flowing godet skirts here. While the Azrias touched upon the decade, they were careful to keep things modern. A black and white, flouncy miniskirt shown with a boxy coated leather jacket was totally twenty-first century. 

Pre-Fall 2013 Burberry Prorsum

By Nicole Phelps

Hit the town for fashion shows in December and you'll clock a lot of buttons spelling "BURBERRY" in the front rows. Christopher Bailey has built an empire on outerwear—a new flagship, constructed from the ground up, opened just last week in the Windy City—and there was no shortage of wantable coats in his new collection for pre-fall: a caban with oversize snap closures on the inside of the lapels, a twofer topper in navy with a removable black leather capelet (remove it and the coat doubles as a sleeveless dress), a cropped shearling bomber. He whipped up trenches galore, many of them in abstract animal-print calf hair.

Pre-Fall 2013 Barbara Bui