Leave the flights of fancy to other designers. Anne Valérie Hash approached her pre-fall collection like a savvy marketing executive. Having brushed up on just who her customer is, she divided the line into four parts.
"Urban winter" is for the woman who shops year-round. In June (when pre-fall delivers), a bare dress in a lively batik print is an easy sell. "Country winter" is destined for colder climes, like Eastern Europe, Russia, the northern part of the U.S., places where a faux astrakhan coat could come in handy. The casual third part of the collection consists of jersey basics, although there's nothing exactly basic about a stretchy draped dress that clings in all the right places. Last, but certainly not least, came the masculine/feminine tailoring that Hash is known for. Pantsuits had an unstructured ease (see the ribbed knit lapels of a jacket and the cross-over waistline of slouched-on pants), while an evening jumpsuit—a perennial for Hash—had the sharp lines of a smoking.
