After a departure on their Spring runway that found them embracing new hues like electric orange and sea blue, Helmut Lang's Nicole and Michael Colovos returned to more neutral ground for Pre-Fall. "Spring was pretty bright for us," Nicole admitted at their lookbook shoot last week. "This is a palette cleanser." But while the colors they chose were mostly black and ombré grays and blues, it wasn't entirely back to business as usual. The designers, who are best known for slouch and drape, continue to experiment with boxier, boyish silhouettes. Leather jackets have a cropped, squared-off cut, and linen pants with geometric patches of smooth leather conjured images of a baseball diamond or other sports fields. Must be those three young boys they have running around at home. The virtue of this collection, as with most of their work, was its edgy wearability.
