Pringle of Scotland's Massimo Nicosia is a cerebral designer. His inspirations tend to run to the ultra-specific and ever so slightly arcane—and in the case of Pre-Fall, the Art Nouveau pioneer Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Plus, his current post at Pringle has given him a set of clear priorities (knitwear, Anglo/Scottish traditions) to vent them on. The purview is narrow, but Nicosia is doing interesting things with it. In the designer's hands, Rennie Mackintosh's grids became tiny squares laser-cut into wool melton, which lightened a usually heavy fabric, or larger ones burned out of dissolvable wool, which lent a macramé effect. Pringle's traditional argyles came inverted on a velvet dress (velvet being an Art Nouveau favorite) and knit into thin-gauge sweaters. As for pieces, there were plenty to add clever polish to a woman's wardrobe: turtlenecks in yarn so fine they were almost sheer, spring-tight knit skirts, and a lovely suit of bouclé and slick chiné devoré. But as a whole, the collection was so meticulously considered—except the kilt-inspired half-wrap skirts and dresses, which could perhaps have been more considered—that it was rendered a little dry.
