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Erdem Moralioglu is talking about inspiration. “I spent a lot of time in the Victoria and Albert Museum’s archives at Blythe House, looking at amazing pieces from the 1960s,” the Canadian-born designer tells me. “I was inspired by haute couture from that era and by the painter Balthus, whose work I love. I was looking at the inside workings of the garments as much as the outside, examining the contrast between evening and day pieces.”

 

The meticulous research, the attention to detail – you could be forgiven for thinking that this creative process was aimed towards one of Erdem’s high-profile London Fashion Week shows. But no, this was the backstory to a collection of 35 outfits that went no further than a lookbook and a few rails of garments, placed in front of the world’s top fashion buyers.

 

This is pre-fall. Once the bread-and-butter commercial collections, filling the gaps between the drama of the main catwalk shows each year, the “pre” collections (that’s pre-fall, which lands in stores early summer, and pre-spring – sometimes called resort or cruise – which hits rails towards the end of the year) are now something of a creative high point for designers.

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“I really enjoy designing pre collections,” says Erdem – as he is known. “It’s where I get an opportunity to explore who my woman is, for day or night. I use it as a place to experiment with ideas before my main show, but it’s also a very separate collection with its own narrative and story.”

 

It is also a very good a place to build a growing business. Erdem showed his first pre-spring collection in 2009, and now the twice-yearly pre collections make up more than half of his yearly sales and are, in his words, “an important part of what I do”.

 

Creative, but with a commercial spin, pre-fall may just be what your wardrobe is looking for – but if so, where should you start? We asked the fashion directors of some of the world’s leading style retailers for their highlights of the pre-fall collections.

 

Anita Barr, Harvey Nichols

 

“The reality is that many of the “it” items are now coming from the pre collections; the Row’s Anasta jacket already has a waiting list, as do Isabel Marant’s tennis trainers (from £270) and Proenza Schouler’s PS1 backpacks (£1,370). It is a strong season for outerwear too; coats have dominated. We have backed the oversized parka – Valentino’s Butterfly-motif lightweight version (£1,540) has just hit the shop floor.”

 

Tomoko Ogura, Barney’s NY

 

“Fringing and shearling are strong statements. Our favourites include Aquazzura’s fringed cut-out shoe-boots and Alexander Wang’s fringed-back tops, as well as Chloé’s shearling cape-coats and Giuseppe Zanotti’s blue shearling-lined motorcycle boots. We also liked Proenza Schouler’s suede-fringed PS1 pouch. There have been so many beautiful coats, such as Céline’s crombies, which come in an array of luxurious fabrics, and blanket coats from Chloé and Stella McCartney that will see you through winter. My personal choice? A Sacai Luck camel pinstripe coat with a green contrast collar.”

 

Laura Larbalestier, Browns

 

“The key trends we have invested in for pre-fall are: checks (from Carven, No 21 and Christian Dior); graphic prints (by JW Anderson, Roksanda Ilincic and Marni) and capes (from Barrie and Burberry Prorsum). The investment pieces include Carven’s check coats, Saint Laurent bomber jackets and Christian Dior’s convertible coat (£4,050), which is one of the season’s must-haves. Knits are really big too; the animal-print sweater (£760) from Céline is my favourite. It is also the perfect time to invest in shoes, as you have the best choice in pre-fall – I’d suggest a midi heel from Dries Van Noten (£445).”

 

Sarah Rutson, Lane Crawford

 

“For us, pre-fall is about a longer skirt and a cosy knit; we call it the ‘softly, softly’ approach – every brand does it. In particular I love all the soft mid-calf plissé skirts from Céline, and the long fluid skirts from Preen and Sacai. Outerwear plays an important role too, from the tailored coat to shearling, which has become the new fur of the season. Animals are a fun element – from butterflies at Valentino to birds at Preen and poodles in 3.1 Phillip Lim. The bucket bag is the must-have shape, and the shoe is all about comfort – from very flat to a tiny kitten heel or sneakers.”

 

Paula Reed, Mytheresa

 

“A lot of our investments for pre are early indicators of the main catwalk buy. Capes at Valentino and Chloé – and strong geometric print themes at Chloé, Fendi, Givenchy and Proenza Schouler – recur both in pre and main collections. Patent leather accessories are also strong. The fringed trims at Stella McCartney and Saint Laurent are key buys for us, and we think the butterfly and flower prints at Valentino, Erdem and Dolce & Gabbana are likely to be snapped up as soon as they arrive.”

 

Bridget Cosgrave, Boutique1

 

“Key pre trends for us are plaids from Preen and Tibi; capes from Issa, Isabel Marant and Temperley; the midi-skirt from Adam Lippes and Jonathan Simkhai and crop pants from ALC and Acne. Bags with personality are also really strong right now, such as Anya Hindmarch’s quirky Crisp Packet Clutch (around £995) to Proenza Schouler’s fringed bags, and rucksacks from the Row.”

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Martin Parr, the renowned British photographer and president of Magnum Photos, is wearing his only piece of designer clothing when we meet: a Paul Smith sweater. “It was in the sale. I would never pay full price!” he tells the Cut. “That jumper is the only thing I’ve ever bought consciously that I knew the label of — as opposed to walking into a shop because it’s next to the bank.”

 

Parr is not a fashion fan, and not known as a fashion photographer, yet he has worked on numerous fashion projects — from going backstage at John Galliano’s last Dior show to shooting Cara Delevingne for Ponystep. He’s friendly with Smith, and shot Paul Smith @ Ilford, for which he photographed ordinary people wearing the fall-winter 2007 collection on the streets of suburban Essex. The images lack the glamour and polish that we associate with fashion shoots, and that’s exactly what makes them recognizably his.

 

This week, Phaidon is publishing a second edition of the monograph Martin Parr. It’s a huge, full-color volume that covers his career as a photographer, curator, filmmaker, and collector since the 1970s, over the course of which he has published more than 70 books, made eight films, and exhibited all over the world.

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I meet Parr at his London studio, surrounded by three young employees who never seem to stop laughing. There’s a lot of joking that one assistant — “Louis the Ladder” — was hired because he’s tall enough to reach the high shelves. Then somebody hands me a rare and incredibly unappetising recipe book that Parr tracked down on eBay — Be Bold With Bananas, published by South Africa’s Banana Control Board in the 1970s. “I’m going to revive it. My next book is going to be published by the Banana Control Board,” he jokes.

 

Parr's photography is “a study of what happens when we try to make our lives less ordinary,” says Val Williams, author of the latest book, who is Parr's close friend. Parr — unlike, say, Tim Walker or Steven Meisel — is not concerned with creating a fantasy. Instead, he documents our mundane attempts to transform our lives with vacations, food, and shopping. You can see this theme in his famous 1980s work The Last Resort, which shows holidaymakers determined to enjoy themselves at litter-strewn, miserable British beach resorts. It’s these little moments that observers of his work have found uncomfortable, poignant, and often very funny.

 

The aspiration to make life less ordinary is never more obviously on display than in the fashion industry, whose inhabitants construct Instagram-ready lives of clothes, Champagne, and photogenic locations. Parr is an artist who has dabbled on the outskirts of this industry almost by accident — but he isn’t interested in making a handbag more prominent or a model more beautiful. “I’ve occasionally worked for brands like Louis Vuitton,” he tells me, “but I don’t think they’ll use me again, because I’m too subversive. I don’t do the propaganda pictures.” He prefers the kind of fashion photography that looks like art, not fashion — like the work of Juergen Teller, Elaine Constantine, and Viviane Sassen.

 

These days, Parr travels all over the world, curating exhibitions, speaking at events, and showing his own photojournalism. He recently shot 20 British designers for a magazine, but he can’t remember any of their names. He lets me flick through the photos, and I spot Erdem Moralioglu. “He’s famous,” I tell Parr, and he looks astonished. “Really? Well, of course you would know that,” he counters. “You’re a fashion journaliste.”

 

He remembers most of the designers in positive terms, except one. “This guy is really famous and really pompous,” he tells me, pointing at a photograph. “Money fucks people up.”

 

You might argue that the corrupting influence of wealth is another theme of Parr’s work, though he probably wouldn’t admit it. He has published two collections that relate to the world of elite fashion, both of which are excerpted in the new book. One is Luxury, from 2007, for which he traveled to the St. Moritz Polo World Cup, the Paris couture shows, and the Moscow Millionaire Fair to capture the world’s highest earners at leisure. Looking at the images, it’s hard not to project what you imagine is Parr’s skepticism about the super-rich, as they bathe un-self-consciously in their wealth. “The luxury world is fascinating — I like it all,” he says. “There’s no question that if you look seriously at the sustainability issues in the world, it would get depressing. But my job as a photographer is to create entertainment, with a serious message if you want it. I don’t force it down people’s throats.”

 

In 2002, when the first edition of the Martin Parr monograph was published, he told an interviewer that he considered his best photographic work to be behind him. When I bring it up, he starts to laugh. “This, of course, is what people quote back at me every interview now.” Twelve years later, he thinks he was probably right, though he’s still hugely prolific today (he’s doing five books this year alone). “But it’s interesting,” he says, “because it’s a great taboo — no photographer wants to admit they might be going downhill, right?” I ask whether that’s why he said it: a rebellious urge to speak the unspeakable. “Yes, partly — because it’s the common truth that no one acknowledges.”

 

Parr is refreshingly outspoken on some topics and guarded on others. But try as I might, I can’t draw him into much discussion of his own work; he prefers to concentrate on doing it, not “pondering,” he tells me. Anyway, after decades of success, he has little need to spell it out for journalists at this stage in his career. “My life is totally overwhelmed as it is, so do I need more exposure? Please, no. Perhaps you’ll be my last interview," he says, laughing.

 

If he’s bored of interviews, at least he still enjoys the weird and unexpected moments that come from meeting new people. When I start to pack up and say good-bye, we discover by accident that we share the same birthday — which is the very next day. He will be exactly twice my age, a coincidence that delights him. “I wish we’d done the interview tomorrow — that would have been amazing, wouldn’t it? 'I’ll always remember you now, Hattie,' I say with a tear rolling down my cheek,” he jokes, and darts off to get me a book as a gift.

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Kering was ranked number three on Newsweek's list of the Top 10 Green Companies in the World, number one in the consumer discretionary sector and had a green score of 83.6%.

 

Newsweek points to the French luxury, sports apparel and accessories company as being "committed to sustainably sourcing its raw materials and eliminating all hazardous chemicals from its products."

 

Marie-Claire Daveu, chief sustainability officer and head of international institutional affairs at Kering, stated to WWD "this level of recognition encourages us to continue our efforts to enhance the sustainability of our business."

 

Committed is exactly what Kering appears to be when it comes to the green initiative.

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Kering's Materials Innovation Laboratory is a resource the company's own brands are able to tap into for information that will help them better understand what is at their disposal in regards to which products are free of harmful substances, are organic and are manufactured in a way that is environmentally acceptable.

 

The Environmental Profit & Loss account is a tool Kering's brand Puma pioneered and leveraged by the company in order to assist in assessing its own environmental impact and those of its entire supply chain.

 

Speaking of Puma, in 2013, 50% of the brand's stores throughout the world offered the Bring Me Back Program that urged its consumers to return their old clothes, shoes and accessories as they would be recycled or reused.

 

Newsweek also highlighted what Kering has done to help save waste, specifically from its packaging.

 

"In order to reduce the amount of packaging sent to stores, carton boxes for handbags and suitcases have been replaced by recyclable bags, saving close to 298 tons of carton."

 

François-Henri Pinault, Kering's chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors, drives home the link between sustainability and business.

 

"It is my conviction that sustainable business is smart business. It gives us an opportunity to create value while helping to make a better world."

 

Be sure to watch Kering's video on sustainability as it helps to emphasize all they have done and are working to do within the realm of sustainability.

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