Stella!!!

 
"Hey, Stella!!!"
That was the first thing I thought when I saw this mannequin in Neiman's window. I still can't get Marlon Brando's plaintive, tortured cry in "Streetcar Named Desire" out of my head. This outfit is sure calling Stella.

 
It's too early for the real fall looks, of course. Some retailers will show a line called "transition"—quieter tones but in lighter weight fabrics—as they know we are getting bored with our summer stuff and thinking ahead already. What I saw in mall windows the other day was surely not meant to wear now. It's 98 at this very moment, and my weather app says it feels like 104. It feels like Hades, that's what it feels like.

Aside from the layers and wraps, it was just all too much, and it appeared in Versace's windows as well as Prada's and Miu-Miu's. I just don't want to wear ankle socks with mules and those prints don't work together. Maybe the window dressers have suffered a bout of heat stroke?

Leave it to Ralph Lauren to opt for a little sanity.