Sneak Peek: Pre-Fall St. John Collection

Always eager to mix our two drugs of choice, Bostonista stopped by the Copley Neiman Marcus on Tuesday to sip champagne and take in the Pre-Fall St. John collection hosted by the label’s creative director, Kelly Gray.

The clothes, in Gray’s own words, were “full of rich saturated color and industrial shimmer.” One of her favorite pieces for the fall, a cerise shiny mini dress, met with approving gasps from the one-hundred-member-plus audience. “I could see Angelina Jolie in everything,” said one loyal Neiman’s customer. (So can everyone else.)

Perhaps it was the cocktails teamed with passed mini-cheeseburgers, duck tacos, and crabcakes that warmed the crowd up, but even the obliging tag-along husbands nodded in approval at the voluminous wide-leg pants and floral-print evening dresses.

“This season gives options—there are traditional suits for our tenured clientele and more fashion-forward pieces for the younger buyers,” Gray said. While the audience definitely skewed, uh, tenured, attendees agreed the clothes were more youthful than past collections.

In the meantime, during the weeks before the pre-fall collection hits stores, Gray recommends packing your summer wardrobe full of leather—but not just any leather: “It has to be an interesting skin and constructed unusually, like a jacket with a seam line where you don’t expect it.”

—Daisy Shaw