It’s visible that Peter Do had great intentions and is doing his best to revive Helmut Lang. But with his sophomore collection for the brand, the New York-based designer falls into the trap all his predecessors stepped into: digging into the archives too much. Helmut Lang, the person, never looked back, nor did his fashion. He was always looking forward to new solutions for building a wardrobe fit for modern-day women and men. So why do contemporary designers taking helm of the brand think its the best idea to operate solely on references to Lang’s past work? Except for the fact that this Do collection is heavily inspired with Lang’s spring-summer 2003 “Chinatown bag” print and bubble wrap jackets, I see no novelty here. Also, do we really need another New York brand doing proper outerwear and proper tailoring? This market is already way too over-saturated by brands like Proenza Schouler, Khaite, Marina Moscone, and ironically, Peter Do, the brand.
Collage by Edward Kanarecki. Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram!
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If there’s one debut collection that you’ve got to see this New York Fashion Week, then it’s Colleen Allen‘s autumn-winter 2024 line-up. A former Vogue assistant who cut her teeth at Raf Simons’s Calvin Klein and The Row, Allen can be hardly called an emerging designer with such impressive portfolio. Her first collection proves she’s got a certain design-maturity that many, many names in New York are still having a hard time in finding. Kept in a vibrant color palette of deep red and cardinal purple, Allen offers a wardrobe filled with body-wrapping knits and jerseys. The draped, flowing dress makes you think of Halston’s 1980s costumes for modern dancer and choreographer Martha Graham, particularly the ones created for the “Acts of Light” performances. The velvet-y, floor-sweeping, red opera coat makes the collection turn an even more theatrical direction, but not overly, we’re still grounded in reality. You can definitely picture the entire offering in IRL circumstances, especially the wonderfully tailored blazers, poet vests, and multi-layered tops. With confidence, Colleen Allen brings much-needed spirit to New York’s league of minimalism.
Collage by Edward Kanarecki. Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram!
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Although Marc Jacobs presented his latest collection off-schedule, a couple of days before NYFW officially starts, yesterday’s line-up brought hope and optimism to the city’s state of the industry. Jacobs celebrates 40 years (!) of his brand, but the spring-summer 2024 line-up doesn’t read us a retrospective, but rather an exuberant, lively love letter to fashion. Walking tall, strong and gracious, like swans (both, the Central Park ones and the Truman Capote ones), in bouffant wigs, the models and the entire doll-house scene (featuring XXL table and chairs by artist Robert Therrien) felt like some sort of twisted fairy-tale. The collection itself was an exercise in exaggerated proportions. Knit sweaters abruptly cinched at the waist; floor-length mirrored ballgowns – those could definitely be worn by modern-day C.Z. Guests and Babe Paleys; supersized Venetia bags (the 2000s Marc Jacobs best-seller is back, better than ever); fluffy-looking tailoring. This is for the dollllllls! The designer sneaked a couple of references to his finest work (and a couple of Louis Vuitton nods are also here), but he also combined his design language with his subtle signifiers of his ultimate fashion heroes: Martin Margiela, Rei Kawakubo, Miuccia Prada. Jacobs never feared to admit he’s a fashion fan. To the tune of Philip Glass, the show ended dramatically as it started, with the doll-models walking out of open door at the end of the runway into the street. There was no finale – and we got a two-second glimpse of Jacobs before the vast space of Park Avenue Armory plunged into darkness. Here’s to next decades and decades of F-A-S-H-I-O-N!
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Marcelo Gaia’s Mirror Palais is a cult worth giving in to. Since 2019 the stylist turned designer has been whipping up sensual ready-to-wear, which has done quite well due to his keen eye for fit. For his spring-summer 2024 collection, presented during New York Fashion Week in September, the designer aimed to find a balance between fantasy and wearability, which worked well through his glam lens. Inspired by a love of vintage, the line offered a modern ode to flirty, feminine and sexy decade-spanning nostalgia with craftsmanship to match. “Definitely the late 18th century – there’s a little bit of Marie Antoinette, then a little bit of 1950s Audrey Hepburn and the 1990s supermodels. Eras when women were in their most flowering, and they’re fun,” Gaia said of the season’s inspirations. Looks spanned from flounced taffeta skirts with little tops to a strong assortment of corsetry (a cream blazer with little shorts; a polka-dotted strapless top with ‘50s capris, or laced up numbers) as well as pretty white day dresses, mushroom-like knife-pleated dresses and ‘90s bodycon bandage styles. Whether leaning into ladylike sensibility with a fluid polka-dot gown or going full femme fatale with sheer, ruffled frocks, Gaia emphasized the importance of offering styles for all body types, utilizing more stretch fabrics, adjustable waist details and a mix of sheer and lined silhouettes throughout.
Collage by Edward Kanarecki. Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram! By the way, did you know that I’ve started a newsletter called Ed’s Dispatch? Click here to subscribe!
Batsheva Hay is in her daring, experimental era: for the past few seasons she has been pushing against the limits that delineate what her brand can be. “I have no classical fashion background, so I learned with cut-and-sew garments, and it was all handed off,” she explained. “I used to feel like I couldn’t work with the garments. I had to hand things over, then pick them up, and it was very nice for my lifestyle. Then I’d go home and nurse my baby and then hand her off, pick the clothes up, pick out the buttons or whatever.” She laughed at the familiar juggling of so many women who go home at the end of a workday for a different kind of work. “But now I find the really fun part is tearing things, shredding things, adding little bustles, pinning things onto things. And I do think that’s an important part of what distinguishes my brand from other brands; that there’s a little bit of naivete in it. It’s not quite feral, but just the amateurness of it all.” For sping-summer 2024, Batsheva went The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel with all the 1950s volumes and colours, but also in the sense of humor. These “grotesque experiments,” as Hay calls them, involved her pinning a surplus of cotton placemats and oven mitts that she had lying around. “I just started safety-pinning them on my body, and I thought, Oh, it’s so sexy,” While the oven-mitt dress feels very much like oven mitts that have been safety-pinned together when you’re just “being goofy,” the experimentation did take her to some groovy places. Like the dress made from delicately embroidered cotton placemats, which has a sort of romantic quality to it, and the top made from floral-print cotton placemats, which Hay draped over a white cotton “cheerleader full-circle skirt” with turquoise godets further propped up by a hoop skirt underneath. If it all sounds a little nutty, it is, but it also feels wearable and oddly accessible. Hay expanded, elongated, or otherwise stuffed some of her go-to silhouettes, like the turquoise dress modeled by Amy Fine Collins, which is one of her bestsellers, and the high-waist, pleated skirt in turquoise with embroidered kissy prints, which she makes every season in different fabrications. The designer was also having fun at her presentation inside the BondST restaurant at Hudson Yards, where models holding little number signs walked around guests, midcentury couture show style, while Hay narrated the looks and then opened the floor for questions and comments from the audience.
Collage by Edward Kanarecki. Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram! By the way, did you know that I’ve started a newsletter called Ed’s Dispatch? Click here to subscribe!
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