Nicole Miller was inspired by antique mosaics and Byzantine plates for a wonderfully visual and tactile collection that evoked a vintage, ethnic, eclectic feeling but never seemed stuck in a time warp. It remained polished, modern and wearable, and looked like clothing that a woman may have collected, or had in her closet for a long time, rather than having the appearance of store bought and brand spanking new. Held fittingly at the beautiful New York Yacht Club on west 44th street, with its Old World elegance, wood paneling, stained glass windows- and skylight- it was all about richly muted colors (olive, teal, tobacco, claret), scarf and border prints (they reminded me a bit of Pucci in their graphic nature) which were interestingly juxtaposed against hefty double face wool, wool herringbone, distressed leather and shearling jackets and coats, fur trims, silk jacquards, skinny legging like pants, and knee length skirts. She made use of modern nail head embellishments to add surface interest. Nicole had some interesting jacket and coat shapes, presented some nifty new takes on the suit, kept silhouettes mainly narrow but also played around with volume and proportion, (as well as sleeve lengths) as so many other designers seem to be doing.

Standouts included the Byzantine border print wool jacket with a brown olive mink collar and ¾ length sleeve, worn with a distressed leather skirt pencil skirt; a wonderfully shaped black jacquard coat paired with a metal chevron blouse and black wool and lycra cigarette pants (very Romeo Gigli circa 80’s); a black wool double face jacket with nail heads worn over a black gold leaf top and ottoman silk skirt; t a brown distressed leather jacket with a nutmeg flannel cigarette pant;, a wonderful above the knee length shearling coat that seemed hand painted worn over a burnout tile print velvet dress; and her Byzantine scarf print silk halter gown

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