Fall 08 Trends Via Oscar de la Renta: Layering Texture

Peter Som, Zac Posen, and Phillip Lim did it too, the streamlined magpie. Perhaps one of the most interesting visions during New York Fashion Week was that of layered texture. Layering and texture, two relatively ambiguous terms, combined this Fashion Week as an exercise in personality. As for layering, it's mostly the sort of slouchy-chic Americana aesthetic, which appears season after season, and as for texture, the ability of technology, art, and architecture to inspire the most innovative textiles (or at least, those reimagined through pairing). The Oscar de la Renta Fall 2008 collection gave us one of the best examples of this theme. A buttery soft plum leather skirt with tulle overlay was paired with a cashmere knit sweater in purples and greens. The mixture of these fabrics, the layering employed, was delivered seamlessly. Never has magpie been so streamlined.