3.1 Phillip Lim NYFW SPRING 2020 READY-TO-WEAR

It has been years since Phillip Lim staged a coed show and he marked the occasion by choosing a new venue for Spring 2020: an open-air warehouse in Greenpoint. Despite the agonizing traffic to and from the Brooklyn neighborhood—this reviewer barely made it in time from the Lower East Side—the vibe mirrored that of his Spring collection: urban yet somehow tranquil. Backstage, Lim was talking about his brand’s values—community, diversity, optimism—and his efforts to pare things back and create items with a clear purpose.

His experiments with tailoring were Spring’s highlights. You won’t find a conventional two-piece suit here; there are enough of those to go around, for starters, and Lim saw an opportunity to create something different for his clients. His most intriguing proposition was a sleeveless, elongated vest with a detachable piece draped around the shoulders, sort of like a scarf; styled with matching trousers or a flow-y midi skirt, the combination was boundary pushing without being too outré for a typical New York office. (Lim knows precisely who his customers are: working women across a variety of fields.) The same was true of an asymmetrical blazer with sleek cutouts and a detachable hood, as well as a jacket shown with a leather bandana—a clever accessory wearers will be happy to play around with.

It might sometimes seem like there is no rhyme or reason in the fashion industry. Many fashions come and go. But the right skirt can stand the test of time. It can also help you create occasion-appropriate outfits of many different types. Nowhere is that more evident than with the many denim fashions and styles you can find while skirt shopping. Many denim skirts are easily styled differently by using different jewelry, shoes and accessories, so you can dress them up or down. If you choose a denim skirt of a length and shape that looks good on your body, you can then use it with many other pieces already in your closet on a consistent basis. That means the skirt and the other pieces in your closet will have more value and usability.

Earlier this summer, Lim debuted a Resort collection that was 40 percent sustainable thanks to new organic and recycled fabrics. He continued those efforts here, pointing out the compact organic cotton of a chocolate brown jumpsuit and the coated cupro of a navy midi dress. It had a liquid-y gleam from afar, like heavyweight satin, and in photos it reads almost as leather, but cupro is made from upcycled cotton waste. Materials aside, designing with intention is a smaller yet crucial part of the sustainability conversation. By nixing the unnecessary bells and whistles, Lim hopes to create pieces with serious longevity. Any designer can source better fabrics, but few can resist the urge to complicate their clothes. Going forward, it would be great to see Lim become a louder voice in the sustainability conversation; as he enters his 15th year in business, it will be an important part of maintaining his momentum and staying competitive with the very woke new guard.

Source: VogueRunway

FASHIONADO

Helmut Lang NYFW SPRING 2020 READY-TO-WEAR

Not far from where Mark Thomas and Thomas Cawson staged their second runway show for Helmut Lang the brand today, an exhibition of Helmut Lang the man’s latest artwork was opening. Lang walked away from his company 15 years ago, and in the interim, it’s gone through its fair share of incarnations. Perhaps because of the significant amount of time that’s passed or maybe because of the recent success of the reissue concept, Thomas and Cawson are taking a very faithful approach to their reimagining of this famous label.

The reissue is a divisive concept. On the one hand, it’s a clever way to address youthful FOMO, on the other, it’s a design cop-out that doesn’t push the conversation forward. The pros see smart money and the cons insist fashion must reflect the present situation or it risks becoming costume. As with so many things, there’s a generational divide. The olds raise an eyebrow, but the youngs turn up in droves. Today, Jeremy O. Harris, Maisie Williams and her new boyfriend Reuben Selby, Charlie Plummer, Lucky Blue Smith, Selah Marley, and Paloma Elsesser all sat in the front row.

Millennials, it would seem, are the target customers. But in fact, what Thomas and Cawson are up to looks good enough that the Helmut faithful might be intrigued. Absent a few dresses that read too sweet, this was an accurate accounting of Lang’s signatures: the minimal tailoring, the utilitarian parkas, the sheer elements, the chromed leather, the touch of latex kink, the denim shapes. Reproducing the electricity of anticipation that used to course through Lang’s show spaces is a much harder trick to pull off. And it’s probably not fair to ask it of Thomas and Cawson. Lang was an original.

Source: VogueRunway

FASHIONADO