New York Fashion Week Reviews: Khaite, Proenza Schouler

From left to right: Fforme, Eckhaus Latta, Proenza Schouler
Photo-illustration: The cup; Photos: Courtesy of Fforme, Eckhaus Latta, Proenza Schouler

To be honest, I now mostly flip through images, nothing grabs me. Or very little. Because very few things make life better and I also want to have a little fun. A friend wrote this in a text over the weekend, along with some photos of early spring flowers in Slovenia, where he lives. He is an art curator and one of the most astute fashion observers I know in terms of art, politics, glamor and feminism. We met years ago, when I started the blog On the Runway in New York Times and he joined the discussion. Once again, he put his finger on the problem.

Despite the immense reach of brands and fashion, a larger role in popular culture has recently been played through shows like The new look And Feud: Capote against the swans and the next documentary by John Galliano barely captivates us. Part of this is the sheer number of images competing for attention, part of it is the lack of truly original talent, and part of it is the realities of a fashion show and the commercial constraints of the industry itself. However, my friend's choice of words is absolutely correct: People are looking for things that enhance life in their homes, in their travels, in their reading and movies, and in their sense of beauty.

And I think that's behind the desire that I sense in designers, whether it's to do realism without the banality of quiet luxury or to completely break out of the spectacle system, as the young designer Elena Velez attempted to do it last night and especially succeeded with a dress. -party at a Fifth Avenue mansion based on a famous French literary salon of the 1700s, followed by a discussion of Margaret Mitchell and her heroine, Scarlet OHara. And this desire also explains the enormous reaction to Gallianos' haute couture show last month for Maison Margiela, which continues to reveal new dimensions of herself, such as the fact that her dandyism is also imbued with Spain.

Khaité
Photo: Hanna Tveite/Courtesy of Khaite

Let's start with one of the hottest NYFW shows: Khaite, by Catherine Holstein, recent winner of the CFDA Womenswear Designer of the Year award. Despite, or perhaps because of, the abundance of dress fabrics (leather, gazar, organza) and sewing techniques like draping, the results seemed as cold as charity. Additionally, Holstein brought his audience into a vast venue at Chelsea Piers, its vastness (and emptiness) enhanced by the fact that models paraded around the perimeter of the square and the rest of the area was a big, glowing black hole in dim living room light. Days hah! are long gone when this kind of heavy drama works. People want intimacy, warmth and contact.

Khaité
Photo: Hanna Tveite/Courtesy of Khaite

Holstein's press notes indicate that she was inspired by the idea of ​​a legacy of memory in particular, by her memories of her mother, and by generational transitions in style and taste. It's a good idea. She also wanted to literally explore the antiquity of a fallen sheet. Hence the organza tops and dresses with rather lumpy drapes. My problem with Holstein's work, as in previous seasons, is that she doesn't get the fundamentals right, like proportion and fit. Instead, everything is pushed, pulled, or inflated, but without clear intention or finesse. Marc Jacobs can also energize things, for example, but the difference is that you don't doubt his goal or his skills.

As it turns out, the weekend's shows were generally good, with the best being Joseph Altuzarras. Now in its 15th year of business, Altuzarra had the simple idea of ​​presenting around forty unique outfits, linked only by a few common genres, such as equestrian clothing, ballet-inspired shapes and the harlequin collar. ruffles. As he pointed out, women don't have commercial closets. Many have clothes they've kept for years and then bring out a style by mixing it with something new.

Well, Altuzarra showed you how to do that without beating a dead horse. What I loved so much about this show, held in front of 80 guests at his company's downtown offices, was that the clothes alternated between classics, like a lemon yellow toggle coat and a navy blue jacket, and unique styles that are slightly eccentric, like a black bugle. -beaded evening jacket based on a sleek men's tailcoat. Still, the main takeaway was that everything felt personal and didn't feel like another tear-jerking exercise in big-brand products. There were the jodhpur-inspired trousers, made in knit, with a soft plain coat and the soft Pierrot collar, then a slim, girly evening dress in ivory silk satin that hinted at the 1930s.

In short, there were no rules but no lack of form either.

Proenza Schouler
Photo: Courtesy of Proenza Schouler

I think we're working harder this season to remove decoration, said Jack McCollough, who with partner Lazaro Hernandez designs Proenza Schouler. Since Proenza recently embarked on a consistent journey of careful tailoring with women's knits (and a new line of jeans whose sales have exploded), there wasn't much to strip away. Indeed, the chic of this collection was in its modesty, its refusal, with the opening pea coat as the driving force; rough, hand-sheared coats of black or ivory sheepskin; long black knit slip-on skirts and thin organza dresses and tops that, when layered, suggest the chalky blur of a Robert Ryman painting. Less obvious were practical but cool gestures, like a large double-faced black cashmere turtle, which you can tuck into the collar of your coat or suit jacket to hide it.

Proenza Schouler
Photo: Courtesy of Proenza Schouler

Latta corner house
Photo: Madison Voelkel/Courtesy of Eckhaus Latta

Although Eckhaus Latta has its own unmistakable style, Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta, in business for 13 years, had a similar question.

How can we turn things around without resorting to all these bells and whistles? Eckhaus said.

Make it real? Latta added.

Latta corner house
Photo: Madison Voelkel/Courtesy of Eckhaus Latta

They did it with a refined and obviously cool Eckhaus collection of knits in patchwork or sculptural cuts, a fabulous honey-colored shag fur jacket and jeans that managed to hold your attention on a very long runway. A highlight was a minimalist pair of layered dresses with random elasticated crimps on the sheer black fabric.

Fform
Photo: Monica Feudi/Courtesy of Fforme

Paul Helbers started Fforme only a few years ago, but he has been in the industry at the highest level for over two decades. This experience was amply demonstrated on Saturday evening, the brand's second fashion show. With his models almost all wearing knitted caps and ballet flats, he multiplies the looks: light coats in cashmere or washed wool; soft pants with its signature wide elastic waistband for graphic sharpness and comfort, pop-over tops and oversized shirts in crisp white cotton, and silk jersey dresses with a simply pleated bodice, including one in understated emerald green .

Fform
Photo: Monica Feudi/Courtesy of Fforme

So everything more or less works together; Helbers added sportier pieces, like cotton shirts and a double-breasted layering top, which is a nice change from a jacket or sweater. But the difference lies in the mastery of the cut and the choice of fabrics. This is why minimalist forms remain alive, as Helbers says. Ask yourself how many minimalist brands actually do this.

I've always been a little bored and frustrated with the typical parade experience, Elena Velez said. Last season, Velez, who launched her brand in 2018 and achieved little commercial success but is a semi-finalist for the LVMH prize, put on a spectacle like a mud fight. This time, she wanted to host a literary salon with guests in black tie and half a dozen of her creations worn (but not modeled) by VIPs. She raised the funds needed for the event from corporate and private sponsors. Her invitation came with a mood board of suggested suit styles for the guests, almost all taken from Scarlet's hoop dresses and men's white tie. Of course, this was all ironic.

Yet what I heard when I spoke to Velez and studied the suggested clothing options, particularly the men's fit, was a burning desire. Not yet 30, she is as dissatisfied with the conditions of the fashion world as she is ambitious to conquer it on her terms. I just have to insist on what feels right to me now, she said before her evening. I have the privilege and the talent to filter these intangible feelings.

Elena Velez
Photo: Cathy Horyn

And I found that the first part of the evening, organized in the living room of the house, had worked extremely well. It was fun to hop over the trains and past the hoop skirts to get to the bar. The VIPs, their hair (or wigs) piled high, wore variations of a corseted dress in silk and acetate fabrics, along with old curtains and scraps of muslin. I didn't mind that you couldn't see the clothes very well and that the hair and makeup, not to mention the expressiveness of the models, could have been better. (I would definitely see the Galliano show, after all.) I admire Velez's courage and instinct, and I sensed that people were having fun.

What absolutely didn't work was the lounge portion, a discussion between a podcaster named Jack Mason and Anna Khachiyan, who is part of the Red Scare podcast and a close friend of Velezs. Velez may hate being called provocative, but when you host a thrift show with two individuals who insist that Gone with the wind is a hilarious and relevant satire on womanhood and that Mitchell herself was one of America's great novelists, so you're provocative. As many scholars and critics, including Claudia Roth Pierpont, have pointed out, it was generally only white critics and readers who admired the book and film. Gone with the wind has no place in anyone's canon, Pierpont said in a well-regarded essay from 1992. It remains a book that no one wants except its readers.

The question is: why does Vélez want to attach himself to this kind of nonsense?