For fall 2011, Preen by Thornton Bregazzi, picked up where they left off last season, chopping apart tailored menswear and attaching it to softer more feminine pieces. It sounds clunky but it wasn’t. The tops of tailored pants were stitched onto longer tulip skirts, and the backs of dresses looked like men’s blazers, pocket slits included. Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi added color to a mostly navy and slate palette with a multicolor geometric print that looked like Escher-meets-Spirograph (remember those?) on silk tops and cropped knits. Prints gave way to heavy beading at the end of the show that covered the fronts of dresses and blouses like mold growing in a petri dish, only, you know, in a cool fashion-y way.

**All photos: IMAXTREE