Erdem Moralioglu is talking about inspiration. “I spent a lot of time in the Victoria and Albert Museum’s archives at Blythe House, looking at amazing pieces from the 1960s,” the Canadian-born designer tells me. “I was inspired by haute couture from that era and by the painter Balthus, whose work I love. I was looking at the inside workings of the garments as much as the outside, examining the contrast between evening and day pieces.”

The meticulous research, the attention to detail – you could be forgiven for thinking that this creative process was aimed towards one of Erdem’s high-profile London Fashion Week shows. But no, this was the backstory to a collection of 35 outfits that went no further than a lookbook and a few rails of garments, placed in front of the world’s top fashion buyers.

This is pre-fall. Once the bread-and-butter commercial collections, filling the gaps between the drama of the main catwalk shows each year, the “pre” collections (that’s pre-fall, which lands in stores early summer, and pre-spring – sometimes called resort or cruise – which hits rails towards the end of the year) are now something of a creative high point for designers.