To Pre Or Not To Pre - That Is The Question

BETWEEN December to February and May to July, the word on every designers' lips is "pre-collection". It's a category that has gained in significance over the past few years because it's on the shop floor for longer and is easy to wear - making it popular with both buyers and consumers alike. But does every designer need to do one? Suddenly two collections a year becomes four.

"For young designers? That is so difficult because it depends on the type of work you do," says Mary Katrantzou, who this season branched out into her first pre-collection (she had previously dabbled with resort, the May to July portion of the pre-season. Are you keeping up?). She also sits on the British Fashion Council's NEWGEN committee and, a wunderkind of the London fashion scene having quickly ascended its ranks and the pressures that come with that since graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2008, knows a thing or two about what goes into producing collections.

"If you have a product that you can split into four seasons then why not? But if you don't have the team or the resources, then no. It has to be strong," she says, pointing out that for her it wasn't an option earlier on in her fashion career. "I have worked on collections that have been so laborious with the craft and with developments. If you do that, you can't churn it out. But with pre you can do a concise offering from what you have."

For her, she likes to view pre (or resort) as an independent season. "With pre it forces you to think about the way you are thinking and needs to accommodate high summer and fall - let's think strategically about it. And this is the first collection I've done without a theme," she says.

Indeed if there's a designer that likes a strong theme, it's Mary Katrantzou all right. She's done perfume bottles, typewriter prints, the alphabet, hyper-real flowers, the lampshade skirts and most recently Pangea.

"So we looked to all the heritage fabrics with the most popular tessellations - houndstooth, paisley, stripes and repeat motifs to make them our own," she explains. And so if you take a closer look at the paisley lace that features you'll notice that up close it in fact spells out "Mary Katrantzou". "It's subtle but it's there," she points out - and in so creating this detail she's reinforcing her brand and her own heritage.

But surely having no theme with this collection made it harder to rein in the ideas? "I felt it was a good exercise for us," she says, confessing that it was hard not to let pre run away over the mainline collection, the deadline for which loomed imminently, too. Katrantzou shows at London Fashion Week at the end of next week.

Is she looking forward to it? "I wouldn't say looking forward… petrified," she jokes.