Advertisement

New York Fashion Week fall 2013: Proenza Schouler review

Share

It was a collection of future classics. Spare shapes but decorated and ladylike. Soft in form, texture and color but created using cutting edge techniques. The kind of clothes that delight and surprise.

Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez proved why they are on top of American fashion’s creative pyramid Wednesday night, when they showed their incredible fall 2013 collection in New York City’s Financial District. The venue was the historic, Gilded Age 5 Beekman Street building, abandoned and decaying for years, and now on the road to redevelopment.

The inspiration: The work of Los Angeles photographer John Divola, whose “Zuma” series captured the slow decay of beachside structures.

Advertisement

Nothing is what it seems,” McCollough said backstage. Barely there colors highlighted innovative textures, including printed perforated leathers woven together to give the illusion of tweed, modern boucles made from synthetic yarns woven on elastic looms, and futuristic lace and eyelet created using ultrasonic welding techniques.

The look: If a “young Audrey Hepburn” lived in 2013. Rounded white boucle sack jacket over black pencil skirt, worn with charming kitten heel D’Orsay pumps. Sleeveless, belted white boucle shift dresses. Black and white leather coats and circle skirts blanched to a plaster-like patina. Black-and white woven leather “tweed” jackets and skirts for the ladies-who-lunch of the future. And for evening, a new way of dressing up, with needle punched leather knit tops over ostrich feather skirts, and technical lace dresses gently wrapping the curves.

The verdict: A marvel of technical achievement with a quiet, classical elegance. McCollough and Hernandez always have an eye towards what is new and next. It’s crazy that these two haven’t been snapped up to design for a major European fashion house yet.

ALSO:

New York Fashion Week fall 2013: Rodarte review

New York Fashion Week fall 2013: Oscar de la Renta review

Advertisement

New York Fashion Week fall 2013: Narciso Rodriguez review

Advertisement