Nordstrom's Fall Preview Shows There is Hope for Seattle

Our style editor returns from the front lines of fall fashion; and she brings good news.

Smoke crepe trenchdress with gold snaps by Gucci

Thursday, July 22 marked Nordstrom’s twenty-fifth annual Fall Designer Preview, which benefited Seattle Art Museum’s upcoming exhibit, Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris, opening on October 8.

The show was held at Pier 91, just shy of the Magnolia Bridge, with pre- and post-show reception hosted in a vast windowed space, and the show itself on a floor below.

After a stop to pick up a smart cocktail in which bobbled a cheese-filled, rosemary stabbed grape, and after Nordstrom’s PR gals Jessica and Pamela welcomed us warmly, photographer Greg Plumis and I leapfrogged our way through the neat mini-boutique set up for shoppers to rifle though.

Read more after jump.

Bright orange double satin one-shoulder dress with long back by Stella McCartney

While I was fondling pretty much each and every item I could (and was barely holding back my covetous tears for the benefit of the camera), crowds of brightly and festively dressed women were laughing, trying on, nibbling through petite Kobi beef burgers and generally bubbling over. It felt like being at the theatre, only a bit giddier; a bit lighter.

The show itself was expertly executed; clean, spare, and just intimate enough. A host of coltish girls, and a few lanky lads, strutted mildly in looks by Lanvin, Chanel, Marc Jacobs, Celine, Stella McCartney, Dolce & Gabanna, Burberry Prorsum and many more (including the show and the upstairs on-site boutique, a total of twenty designers were represented). I felt myself to be in a new, more glamorous Seattle, a different city than the one in which I grew up.

Black/red/beige tweed coat with grey fantasy fur trim by Chanel

Photos above by Greg Plumis

Spotted: Jenny, owner of Far4, fashion writer Laura Cassidy (wearing an excellent fanny pack and bunny ring from Far4), and a fabulous lady wearing the Burberry Prorsum S/S2010 jewel-encrusted trench (shown at a different Burberry show below) that was all over the glossy editorials this winter; to see that kind of item in utilitarian Seattle was a sparkling sort of delight!