Michael Kors Pre-Fall 2015 Collection

Michael Kors has gone girly – sort of. For transeason (he rejects the “pre-fall” handle), he said he riffed “on what I would call clichéd feminine things that I would never touch, like bows and pearls, but looking at them in a very graphic way.” And in a very Kors-ian way, which is to say he extracted all the froth out of the material and melded it into his platform of chic sportif. He did so with nods to the glam muses of today and yore. Were this collection a law firm, the designer suggested, it would be called Holzer, Ryder and Swift – as in, for the record, Jane, Winona and Taylor.

Kors delivered his unfussy femininity via crisp lines in structured fabrics from denim to duchesse. He kept silhouettes neatly relaxed, whether in full-ish skirts worn with lean tops or his must-have take on side-striped track pants, cut extra long in double crepe and slit at the ankles over divine slip-on “tuxedo sneakers” bedecked with precise bows. That flourish was part of Kors’ graphic girliness, which also showed up in pearl polka dots, brushstroke florals and all kinds of shine. If a patent shearling coat doesn’t grab a girl’s fancy, a sequined rugby might.

As for the season’s new bag, Kors showed a compact, structured version with a wide strap. Does it have a name? “Yes. Some girl’s name, but I don’t remember what,” he said. “We weren’t allowed to call it ‘Taylor.’ That, I know.”