This past Spring we thought we'd never survive the floral madness. When Spring 08 was editorialized with every kind of floral pun and relative aesthetic concept ('English Garden', 'In Full Bloom') the editors could conjure, we thought by the time the clothing delivered, we'd be too worn out to participate.

What happened though, was that Fall 08 shows started percolating in our subconscious early leaving the bright, summer florals relatively little much mind-space. Yes, we wore floral this summer but it didn't feel over saturated, at least not given its build up. That said, the Fall 08 floral trends didn't irk us as much as we would have thought. In fact, the brooding, romantic, more dense florals that we see this season are even more interesting and dynamic than those which we saw for spring. It feels, despite all of the floral chit chat in 2008, decidedly fresh.

For our Fall's Top Five: Past & Present photo shoot our stylist, Liz Baca, pulled a vintage Yves Saint Laurent dress from Rock It Retro and an Erdem frock, with a floral print that was inspired by scenes from a moving train (we'll be covering the Erdem show this Spring, we are big fans). Below, check out some of our favorite 'winter's summer' trend pieces and, below that, our previous roundup of the florals we saw in the fall shows. We don't want to make you tired of it--but we just can't help ourselves.

Walker Percy said in The Moviegoer that there is a particular gnosis that comes from train travel. This spiritual knowledge must be Erdem Moralioglu meant he said his printed silk dresses, like the one featured in Fall Top Five photo editorial, are "like a landscape speeding past when you're on a train." Ephemeral, delicate, and deeply moving, these dresses speak to us.

Now, our experience with Amtrak is not quite so beautifully blurred, but a Bullet train's swooshing seems a delightful metaphor for a kind of European modernity that takes a high tech perspective to an aging tradition. You see, Erdem was able to design this series of dresses using double duchesse Taroni silks. Integrating bracing modern lime, purple, acid yellow, and orange prints with silk from Como's oldest operating weavers is exactly the kind of lateral thinking we embrace here at Coutorture. Indeed, we we have already featured the Fides Silk gown once in an Immaterial post while promising to use it in a wider editorial. The variety of silhouettes Erdem features using the same basic pattern showcases just how flexible this print series can be. Thus when we were able to feature the Statina Dress you can imagine we were pleased as punch.

Designer Erdem Moralioglu described this print as the landscape from a speeding train. It was this print, in part, that led to a critically acclaimed Fall 08 collection from Moralioglu, who started his own line back in 2006. The designer worked for Diane von Furstenburg before winning the Fashion Fringe award in 2005 and has been climbing his way up to the top since then. This collection was by far his most stunning, with beautifully tailored frocks and coats, trench coats adorned with lace or rosettes, and a print to top all of the florals we've seen for the past two seasons. This Fides Silk Gown, now available on Net-a-Porter, was on of our favorites. Elegant, long and lean, this frock could be worn by a woman of any age, and by day or evening, depending on the occasion. This collection was innovative and elegant and this dress is a shining example of just how talented is the designer. We'll keep an eye on just how fast these first pieces sell out, and bring you full spreads once more of the collection delivers.