Preview of N.Y. Shows

As New York designers prepare to show their fall collections next week, the accent is on brighter colors, softer shapes and a remembrance of things past. Chemises, trapezes, pajama pants and stovepipe pants are silhouettes found in fashion history books--and in these advance photos from some of Seventh Avenue’s biggest names. Calvin Klein’s waistless dress in yellow wool recalls a style popular in the 1950s, when versions of Hubert de Givenchy’s “new look chemise” were worn around the world. The wide trousers of Donna Karan’s purple outfit also seem a blast from the past; they’re reminiscent of the gaucho pants worn by hipsters in the ‘60s. The Duchess of Windsor might have worn something like the gray cashmere suit designed by Ralph Lauren. And Geoffrey Beene’s flare-back jacket, worn over a matching gray knit dress, recalls the 1958 “trapeze” shape invented by Yves Saint Laurent.