I’ve been following The Society Archive – Marcus Allen‘s brainchild – since its launch in 2020, and, to be very frank with you, I’ve been studying its Americana-induced imagery religiously ever since. The Society Archive is hard to classify: it’s not just a brand and not just a vintage shop. It’s a community of people drawn to this very seductive vision of America, where preppy has holes, suede is lived-in, and the echoes of Bruce Weber’s idyllic sultriness are well and truly alive.

Spring-summer 2027 marks Allen’s runway debut, and takes inspiration from his personal collection of vintage pieces, which he’s been collecting since he was a teenager. Titled “Dogma” (“it suggests an unpretentious approach to dressing without compromising precision,” Allen said), the collection is like a antique quilt repurposed into something contemporary: a cocktail of stories and memories, stitched together with very, very good-looking models (cast by none other than James Scully, who used to work with Tom Ford in the Gucci days).

Styled by Tony Irvine, the collection proposes familiarity through contrast, referencing garments from the 1890s and the 1990s alike. The opening look was a pair of silk taffeta board shorts with silk drawstrings, paired with a baseball cap pierced with seashells. Key moments included a sand-colored suit with a neon hibiscus-printed cummerbund that closely resembled the fly of a men’s swimsuit – a custom print rendered in nylon with silk laces; a navy fleece quarter-zip layered over a custom-printed cotton skirt with a silk train; and a bright orange opera coat thrown over a plaid sarong.

And then there were the chill-red briefs, complete with a little butt-crack moment, that set the audience – and the Internet – ablaze. New York Fashion Week certainly needs moments like this.

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