So far this New York Fashion Week, Proenza Schouler delivered the most convincing answer to the big question: how do we want – or aspire – to dress in 2023. Actually, this collection could be the contemporary equivalent of Helmut Lang (instead of what Peter Do delivered in his debut). “We finished the fall show and we knew right away that we really wanted to continue its spirit,” Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez said. “To have that board of women we pulled together last season be the starting point and just kind of riff off a lot of the same ideas in a spring context.” The two collections were very much in dialogue with each other. It started with the celebrity casting. Chloë Sevigny, who opened last season, was replaced by Natalie Laura Mering, who is known professionally as Weyes Blood and who wrote an original composition for the soundtrack. Her white single-breasted, three-button jacket and black trousers struck an understated, minimal note, save for her glossy red toe polish and sheer black stockings worn with strappy kitten heels. Other jackets were worn tucked into pants waistbands, a utility belt strung through the belt loops. The designers liked the ordinariness of showing bleached straight-leg jeans and a black leather coat with straps hanging below the hem (an equestrian reference) and a papery windbreaker-type jacket with a mesh tee. They answered those plainer looks with special pieces that showed off their interest in craft, like mesh dresses made from hand-tacked ribbon and gossamer separates with “broken glass” embroidery. The label’s newly designed initials appeared on the Proenza’s first handbag, the PS1 – back in squishy leather and leather-covered hardware. Its low-key cool jibed with the rest of the collection.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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