While for most everyone the arrival of fall means golden leaves, apple cider, pumpkin pie, and yellow school busses, for those of us who love fashion, fall means a return to dressing. Gone are the sweltering days of summer, with those barely-there sundresses and mini skirts. Hello, boots, coats, gloves, hats, scarves, and sweaters! This fall, designers have fallen in love with three things that most everyone can pull off, and without the designer price tag to boot: the color grey, chunky knits, and 40s inspired suits.

Whether it’s light, dark, heather, or charcoal, the color grey was all over the runways at Fashion Week in New York earlier this year, when designers unveiled their fall 2007 collections. Kenneth Cole presented a beautiful, cowl neck sweater dress worn over skinny black pants with a thin black patent leather belt at the waist, which would be perfect for transitioning from daytime to evening. On the other end of the spectrum, Georgio Armani created a gorgeous, sparkling silver-grey, strapless, knee-length evening gown with a bubble skirt. These grey tones have seeped into the retail stores as well, leaving those of us without designer budgets with lots of options. Banana Republic has taken on a mostly black, white, and grey theme for fall, and their puff sleeve dress is particularly sweet. Isaac Mizrahi has designed a charcoal grey Merino wool turtleneck dress for Target shoppers, which is nicely cut, and long sleeved for chillier autumn afternoons.

The sweater dress took on a whole different shape on runways, with large-gauge yarns in thick knits. Burberry Prorsum created a short V-neck cable knit sweater dress with an enormously bulky knit and extra long sleeves. Some of these sweater dresses were so gigantic that the models looked as though they were children playing dress up in their parents’ clothing! Luckily, what’s hit the stores is more scaled down, but the chunky cables are definitely still there. La Redoute carries a chunky cowl neck sweater dress that’s a much more wearable version of what we saw on the runways for this season.

Forties inspired suiting is everywhere this autumn, in gorgeous cuts that are flattering on every type of body. Hermes did a gorgeous brown pencil skirt with a fitted jacket that belted, then flared at the waist in a very flattering, feminine way. Tuleh paired a slim pair of slacks with a fitted, almost shrunken blazer for a totally chic suit. For the flared shape of the Hermes blazer without the Hermes price tag, Nanette Lapore has a beautiful blazer on Bluefly.com that would go brilliantly with a grey or black pencil skirt. While the Lapore blazer is still designer, it’s discounted on Bluefly to a price that we in the real world can just about swallow.

The most important thing is to have fun with the fall trends; make them your own. There’s always a way to make a funky piece more classic, or to dress up an old piece to blend in with the styles of the season. In any case, it doesn’t take a lot of money to capture the feeling of the designer lines. With a little imagination and a bit of research, you can own these looks and bring Fashion Week straight into your closet.