Mara Hoffman Fall 2012: Here's Hoping For a Mild Winter

3:00 PM, February 12 2012

By Fawnia Soo Hoo

The Scene: It was a veritable The City reunion at the Mara Hoffman show. But, since Kelly Cutrone's PR company, People's Revolution (which was frequently featured on the former MTV reality show), reps the designer, it wasn't a huge surprise.

Whitney Port was in the front, across the runway from Olivia Palermo's "Face of Elle Magazine" competition, Louise Roe. Adorable little Ava Cutrone (in a paillette covered white dress) brought her bestie as a plus-one and she was working the room like it was her own playground (which it kind of is). We swear we saw Ava's Euro-hunky dad, too. Before the lights went down, we had the pleasure of watching Kelly Cutrone boot a couple interlopers out of the front row. To echo the guy behind us: "It's just like on the show!"

The Looks: Even though we were looking at a fall/winter collection, many of the pieces were perfect for a beachy vacation. The runway was full of billowing tribal print maxi-dresses, arm (and back) baring tops, plunging necklines, strategic cut-outs and beautiful, ethnic-inspired prints.

There were, however, some cold weather appropriate items: a woolly basket-weave coat, nubby ikat knit sweaters and a warm, toasty-looking shawl wrap jacket. Hoffman also included her own version of après-ski with high-waisted, drawstring jacquard knit leggings and a wrap cardigan set.

Pieces We Want: When we hit St. Barths (or more likely, wait until summer), we'll totally go for the fluttery tiered maxi-dress. But until then, we're all about the warm, heavy-knit grandpa cardigan with the red and blue graphic-print woven on the back, paired with cropped and tapered statement pants.