Have you ever seen a more perfect fall look built on color-blocking? Ece Sukan, an editor at Vogue Turkey, had a preternatural preference for the “IT” shade of Fall 2012. Her rich raspberry pants, pumpkin orange overcoat, deep burgundy blazer, and saturated oxblood top combine to create a magical symphony of autumnal color. These colors look simply sublime next to one another, and yet the risk of clashing is so great. When Don Draper tells Peggy Olson in Mad Men that good ideas and bad ideas for an advertising campaign are extremely close the same concept applies to fashion. The term “fashion risk” refers to bringing one’s look right up to that demarcation; the edge is where style is born. This woman (who has been identified by a lovely reader as Ece Sukan) knew exactly how to mix these jewel tones in daring yet wholly sophisticated manner. The neutral accessories – black ankle boots, sumptuous leather gloves, a fur collar and taupe purse – help ground this look, as does the tailoring and solid emphasis on colorblocking. A print would have surely been far too much energy on top of these competing hues.

Rodarte and Alexander Wang both featured entire looks composed of oxblood.

Images via Style.com

Ironically enough, I photographed this woman wearing hues of oxblood the day before a Wall Street Journal article by Christina Binkley declared this deep shade of red to be “THE” color for Fall 2012. Oxblood was seen on the Rodarte, Narcisco Rodriguez, Jason Wu, Derek Lam, Costello Tagliapietra, Alexander Wang, and 3.1 Phillip Lim runways, where it was poured over evening dresses and saturated through cable knit sweaters. The anonymous woman on the streets of New York is clearly ahead of the ball on the oxblood trend. But hey, what else do you expect from New York fashion week street-style?