Every designer who crosses Pringle of Scotland's doorstep becomes obsessed with knitwear. That's what 200 years of heritage can do to a sensitive designing sort. Massimo Nicosia is no exception. "The silhouettes you can achieve with knitwear are quite incredible," he enthused during a preview in London. But he has brought his own twist to the table: knits that are woven, wovens that are knits. Nicosia likes the ambiguity of nothing being what it seems—which meant his Pre-Fall collection for Pringle was packed with intriguing textures: ribbed silk lending shape to a cocktail dress; fox woven onto knitted leather for a lushly reversible coat; knits tailored with a technique called fléchage, knitted in a circle so everything had the swirl of a bias cut (it was nice in the cardigan of a twinset, which flared fetchingly at the hem). Nicosia exercised his outsider's fascination with Pringle's native Scotland. The wallpaper and upholstery of grand houses supplied patterns. Flora and fauna provided the palette—the deep purples and blues of the peacocks at Prestonfield House, the dull gleam of a moth's wings duplicated in silk. A gold hinge on a rough-hewn wooden door in Holyrood Palace, home to Scottish kings and queens, inspired the detail on a cashmere sweater. A classic kilt was abstracted as a bifurcated wrap skirt. Pringle's past has often been a dead weight for its designers and that's a cross Nicosia must bear, too. But there were at least intimations in this collection that he'll be able to do so with grace.
