For Ellery's first-ever Pre-Fall collection, Sydney-based designer Kym Ellery decided to focus on luxe. There were serious fabrics here—brocade, velvet, duchesse satin—and high-drama silhouettes, like the voluminous organza dress or the inventive bustier with fabric folded all across the front. Though the shapes were hardly traditional, the very dressiness of this collection made it feel a touch staid. Even the ladies who lunch like some ease in their clothes these days. Not that there weren't individual pieces that expressed just that—the cropped brocade pants with a little kick out at the hem, for instance, or the motorcycle jacket in wine-red ponyskin, an aspirational lust object, indeed. But the standouts here had to be the simple sheath dresses with the trumpet sleeves: No trouble to toss on, and the effect was incontrovertibly soigné.
