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.

Just a few updates in case you make it your business to stalk the deliveries of Louboutins--like we do. Call us predictable, we believe in the canon.

If you can say this three times in a row, we'll come to your house and paint all of your shoe soles red. The Altadama Astrakhan Platforms, which we pulled for today's editorial, Fall's Top Five: Past & Present, deserve a note on their real-life presence. Net-A-Porter articulates them as being appropriate from late summer through mid-fall but we're pretty sure they're fabulous (and we don't use that word lightly) for any temperature (with hosiery, of course!). For our shoot we went monochrome and opaque. We're all about the colored tight and the monochromatic styling, so call it by osmosis that our stylist showed up with this pairing in mind. The shoes are larger than life, is all we wanted to say. Just in case you can't tell from the picture.

The New Simple Pumps, which we wrote about the second they hit Net-a-Porter, only to find them sold out by the end of the day, are back in stock. Never underestimate the power of a reorder! Some sizes have started selling out but we wouldn't bring it up if there weren't a significant run of sizes left. As we said before, these grey flannel pumps would probably take you miles this fall. We don't expect to see them on the site next week.

There's nothing better than falling in love with a pair of shoes and then finding out they come in multiple colors. The Very Brode Pumps (or, the Passementerie Pumps, as they're known to Neiman Marcus) so far, we've seen in yellow, red, and hot pink. The hot pink pair we pulled for our shoot (though, sadly, it didn't make it in) and we have to say that they are outfit-making if ever. As perfect with crisp jeans as with a proper cocktail dress, the only tough decision is which color to indulge in. Yesterday we thought pink but today we're leaning towards yellow. As if we needed something else to worry about right before fashion week!

Metallics, as they are an intrinsic characteristic of 'holiday' attire, are bound to crop up every season in slightly different hues. This Fall 08, in addition to burnt golds and coppers, we saw quite a few opulence trends on the runway, turning Fall 08 into a 'holiday-happy' season indeed. The Fall 08 Philosophy Di Alberta Ferretti collection, for instance, is full of holiday party options. The collection touched on the lace, sequin, and velvet trends of Fall 08 while pulling in the classic metallics we were expecting all along. We quite like this embellished tank because styled a la Proenza Schouler with wool trousers, a leather jacket, and paired down hair and makeup, it would be the perfect 'Fall/Holiday 09' moment. Sequins, this season, are meant to look a little disheveled (a little like you've been digging in the dress-up trunk) and so this blouse would be perfect as the dressed-up ingredient. Net-a-Porter styled it with slim black cigarette pants, which show you the more classic approach to wearing this piece (and it looks quite sharp like that too) but if we were going to wear it, we'd go for contrasts in texture. Below, the Philosophy Fall 08 show so you can break down the pieces and muss them up Fall 08 style.

LD Tuttle is a dream brand for a certain kind of independent girl that likes her accessories trendy but not immediately recognizable. The fall collection is packed with the requisite grays and off color neutrals, bursting with ankle booties and straps galore, and it has just enough suede to make us swoon. In other words, it has everything a Williamsburg wants without saying screaming I bought this season's "it" shoes. Community member Style Bite is positively drooling over the collection. Thus it is no surprise that Coutorture favorite and Williamsburg (and now Soho) staple Oak has a great stockist for the fall collection. We took the liberty of doing a little round up of the shoes we like best.