Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi, the designers behind the London-based label Preen, showed an opulent, carefully constructed collection at Milk Studios on Sunday. Backstage, they told us that the collection had been inspired by Diana Vreeland, as well as the San Francisco craft movement -- an unlikely combination that under their fingers came together quite beautifully.
Preen's strongest mark is really the unconventional approach the label takes on traditional, tailored pieces: Skirts were slit way up the leg and sometimes look like trim skirts piled on top of other skirts (often with dualing colors like purple and cobalt), while jackets have a strong, masculine quality. This season, the designers added several iterations of a colorful, kaleidoscopic print, as well as some heavy silver embroidery on select pieces that Thornton and Bregazzi admitted had taken "months," giving the entire collection a more luxurious feel.
