nyfw fall 2022

Sexual Sting and Anarchy Equally New York Way Calendar week Returns

Shayne Oliver returns, a new shape at Proenza Schouler, and an honest wait from Elena Velez.

Photo-Analogy: The Cut; Photos: Cathy Horyn, Isidore Montag/Imaxtree, Jonas Gustavsson

Photo-Illustration: The Cut; Photos: Cathy Horyn, Isidore Montag/Imaxtree, Jonas Gustavsson

When a designer says his track show will be more like a music festival, you can presume several things. Information technology will start belatedly. Information technology volition exist extremely loud, and everybody will be standing, looking upwards at the phase — which, in Shayne Oliver's instance last dark, was scaffolding with a platform that snaked through a semi-nighttime performance hall at the Shed in Hudson Yards.

Oliver had not presented new fashion in awhile. After burning up the runway with his aggressively styled brand, Hood By Air — its key years were 2012 to 2016 — he put it on hiatus in 2017. He's now back with the Shayne Oliver line (and with HBA resuming every bit a separate, spider web-only business). In an interview recently, Oliver told me that in the last twelvemonth or two of Hood's before existence, he and his pattern team had strongly disagreed about its future direction — with some arguing for a return to its streetwear roots and Oliver wanting to embrace high fashion. "I was growing as a designer," he said. And judging by the look of the final few HBA shows, he prevailed. The pattern was definitely more aggressive, though still with a hard attitude. In fact, so explosive was the creativity that some HBA shows felt similar ii collections in one.

In our interview, Oliver said the mood for the debut of the new namesake label was glamour, even ballgowns. Not for ane minute did I believe that Shayne Oliver would do a recognizable ballgown. His technique is to chop up, to remove or rethink beauty, and information technology follows in the tradition of designers like Martin Margiela and Rick Owens. He also told me, "I definitely desire to observe a new way of showing."

Shayne Oliver Photo: Cathy Horyn

That might explicate why he had his models walk through the audience, with practically no warning. The first model appeared — in blackness briefs with a silvery spangled top and a black bubble jacket with thigh-high white stiletto boots and huge black goggles — and the oversupply gradually parted. Soon the guests formed a rails through the eye of the hall, though some models — a few carrying a single-stem white rose, equally if to some pagan ritual — went their own manner. Or perhaps they were lost.

Anyway, in the end, all the models finished the show by walking gingerly along the platform of the scaffolding, while a female singer performed in a chopped-upward white bustier gown. She was Alexandra Drewchin, known professionally as Eartheater. At 1 signal her two attendants, attired in not much more than thongs, crawled on all fours behind her — a fitting posture before a goddess, I guess.

Even though I had a skilful perch near the impromptu runway, I could just take hold of snatches of the costumes. A beautiful, low-cut black silk gown suspended from thin shoulder straps. Some irregularly cut brusk dresses in bright pastels that looked mitt-tinted. A blackness coat with excessively built-up glamour shoulders, with a silver-spangled hoodie and really absurd white patent-leather booties with toes then long and pointy they could cut hedges. No wonder the model took infant steps. At that place was even a kind of bromance nod to Oliver's friend, the designer Telfar Clemens — or rather Telfar's ubiquitous logo tote bag, the so-called "Bushwick Birkin." Oliver transformed the tote into a one-dimensional argent breastplate on the forepart of a blackness tank peak, with cool black trousers. It was a fun, sneaky gesture: appropriating his friend'due south hot bag then mocking it equally a condition symbol.

Other designers have staged shows in the mood of a concert, notably Telfar, who even had a mosh pit. Still, the mission to "find a new way" of presenting runway manner is worthy. Though Oliver'southward comeback collection was just that — a tentative kickoff — it projected strength in form and attitude. It just would have been nice to meet more of the clothes.

Every bit the autumn 2022 collections got underway on Friday — the beginning of a month of shows — strength and individuality were themes at Proenza Schouler and the immature designer Elena Velez.

Proenza Schouler Photo: Jonas Gustavsson

"Information technology was just instinct," said Lazaro Hernandez, well-nigh the genesis of the sensual, lantern-shaped skirts and peplumed tops at Proenza Schouler, held in the starkly cute Brant Center in the Due east Village. "It feels similar we're entering a new moment in our careers, in the globe." His partner, Jack McCollough, added, apropos of the shapes, "They about await like slight historical nods."

He meant the ultra-airy lantern-skirt dresses that featured a knitted upper portion that defined the waist, creating a soft hourglass shape. What was striking about the collection was how information technology deftly carried over ideas from the last two Proenza collections, in particular simple dresses with a lot of menstruation, pantsuits with a sharp waist, and fresh colors (this time, a gorgeous inky majestic and a violet for a long silk shirt-dress). Although the lantern dresses got a little goofy, I liked the designers' sense of play. Far more than interesting were a black knitted strapless top with a peplum worn with blackness wide-leg trousers, and a long, off-white sequined evening shift with a twisted racer back. Those looks conveyed "the new formality" the designers sought, but with modern ease.

Information technology was a large day for Eartheater, whose spooky music was as well played at Proenza Schouler — by a violin quintet conducted past Simon Hanes.

Elena Velez Photograph: Isidore Montag/Imaxtree

Velez called her collection "Maidenhood & Its Labors." Perhaps just call it "women and the shit they put upwardly with." Perhaps from feel, as a daughter of a mother who is a send airplane pilot on Lake Michigan, and perhaps from her own sensibility, Velez has a wonderful way of implying female strength — in her selection of handsome, sharp-featured models, in her cuttings techniques with humble fabrics that can often seem savage and confrontational. She works in linen, gauze, laminated military canvas, and recycled parachutes. Vernacular goods. Some of her garments on Fri night were quite structured — loose floozy dresses in off-white gauze with seams that hinted of boning, a well-constructed brown wool blazer yanked closed at ane side and worn with night parachute pants.

But many of her wearing apparel accept a cleaved, hectic quality, as if the wearer stitched up a few scraps of erstwhile cloth into a apparel and got on with her day. Other pieces await similar Velez may have brushed some paint on the fabric and and so baked in the oven considering her women do what they want. And peradventure that'southward the source of the sexual sting in her clothes. Merely whatever it is, it seems to come from an honest identify.

Sexual Sting and Chaos Equally New York Way Calendar week Returns