“When did I feel happiest?” That was the question Tanya Taylor asked herself before designing pre-fall. The answer? A long-ago trip to the west coast. “There’s this free spirit to California that is so different from me, but something I aspire to and I love,” said the designer on a walkthrough of a collection she described as being “sunkissed, a little bit more faded, and softer.” While not strictly neutral, the palette was earthier, with lots of rich browns, ochre, and sage, plus flashes of aquamarine, citrus yellow, and lavender.
Taylor leaned into floral dresses here, one of her specialties. There were many halter-neck styles with elasticized backs as well as a fitted sheath with a handkerchief hem. Among the silky slip dresses, a standout was a mahogany number with a white flower print. Best capturing the laid-back Cali attitude were striped separates in a pre-wrinkled fabric in colors that could have been pulled from the rusty heights of Split Mountain. A denim and T-shirt look had a slightly Western feeling. “There is this ease, freedom, unplanned, unhurried feeling to summer that you want to bottle up,” said Taylor. For pre-fall, she’s temporarily put aside the idea of uniform dressing in favor of “creating pieces that people can put together in a really cool individual way.”
