If you met this season's Vera Wang girl, would you like her? Girl is the operative word here: Designer price point notwithstanding, you unavoidably pictured an undergrad going out in Wang's pleat-embellished short shorts or her poppy-print minidress with a bubble hem, worn with a matching sweatshirt. That young woman seemed like a bit of a flake. But if you thought of this collection as a sort of bildungsroman, you could see the Wang girl come of age. There she is, spending Daddy's money on things like sequined Bermuda shorts; then, advancing in sophistication, you find her dressing with a bit more circumspection, selecting a cocktail dress of evanescent black tulle and a camel cashmere coat with broad lapels. She hits her sweet spot wearing a long, gauzy maxi dress in that poppy print, or better yet, a wide-leg jumpsuit in sheer-ish black silk. Eventually, she enters her going-off-the-rails period—she ventures out in leather maxi skirts and tucks herself away in layers of long goat hair. Reemerging for the denouement, she discovers an affection for knitwear. As we take leave of her, she's in a slender ribbed knit skirt and striped crewneck sweater. This collection made the clever point that we are many selves over the course of one life. Or one pre-season, as the case may be.
