Way back in London, I met up with Mira Mikati (that's where she's based) to talk about her upcoming exclusive capsule for SPACE, and to get a preview of her Paris Fashion Week showcase presentation and reconfirm her overall point of view, which is that fashion is fun and style can be an immediate, rewarding conversation starter.

As with every season, Mira's Fall is an affront to sartorial conformity and what she calls the Groundhog Day-like dreariness of dark colors and same, same, same. And like many of her seasons, Fall is about travel. Only this time it's about not traveling; it's about staying home-which, for various reasons such as the perceived and real danger of transit, she has recently done more of. I asked Mira if she meant it was about a staycation. Her eyes lit up, "What is a staycation?" I explained the American term and she was basically thrilled. Yes, Mira Mikati's Fall 2016 collection is about staycation. It's about the adventure and exploration that one is both forced and allowed to have when one stays inside.

To illustrate this, she inserted the funnest house in the world- a bouncy house -inside a grand Parisian structure, and invited us all in to stay for awhile.

From New York to London, Milan to Paris, many designers stepped away from typical fall palettes and showed up with crazy jewel tones and soft pastels, but Mira's dedication to color is only the beginning of her resistance to the idea that fall should be somber or-God forbid-gray.

What Mira (shown below in London, in friendship bracelets and emoji tweed) enjoys most about wearing her own pieces is the smiles and nods and appreciation she gets from strangers while doing so. She compares it to the way pregnant women silently acknowledge each other-that "I feel you, girl" moment. And so, in addition to mood-elevating colors, a dedication to overt and subtle kindred-spirit messaging, too.

As you can imagine, the collection was well-recieved. Best-dressed fashion moms and their broods as well as kids of all ages roamed the room-inside-the-room, and if they didn't manage to kick their shoes off and jump around you can be sure they nonetheless felt a certain kinship with those who did.

-Laura Cassidy