If there’s a silver lining to fashion weeks going digital in both New York and London this season, it’s that a number of designers who previously showed during the June men’s weeks have opted to show in September, traditionally the month of women’s shows.
One such welcome addition to the calendar is the gender fluid label Art School, helmed by Eden Loweth, whose audience-less show titled “Therapy” featured a live soundtrack by Brits Rising Star award winner Celeste. Loweth’s 54-look lineup—running the gamut from deconstructed silk maxi skirts to Saville Row-inspired tailoring—was as inclusive as their casting which featured a number of young trans and nonbinary creatives, disability advocates, and a local UK politician.
The through-line is bias-cut, a construction technique used in flou silhouettes to create natural stretch, which Loweth also applies to suiting. —Alison S. Cohn
While we’re all looking forward, parsing the meaning of the “new normal,” it seems Simone Rocha was looking back in history, as she often does. Rocha’s work blends Victorian and Edwardian inspiration with an ample dose of romance—all with a downtown, boyish bend.
Spring 2021 had all that in droves, along with Rocha’s staple floral and pearl adornments, but there was something extra this time around. This collection celebrated the female form, corseting busts, at times cinching waists (a rarity for Rocha), and turning bows into hips.
The collection felt ultra-luxe, almost like ultra-femme armor. To protect against what, we wondered? Rocha answered that in her poetic show notes: “Sobering and exploding. Pragmatic and foreboding … looking for comfort and security in the extreme.”
Whatever lies ahead, it appears Rocha’s woman will be prepared for it—clad in embroidered breastplates, with mother of pearl and faceted gem evening clutches the size of medieval wartime ball and chains, and “ergonomic shoes and souls.” —Carrie Goldberg
Bold brights; stripes and checks; ruffles on ruffles on ruffles. Sounds like a classic Molly Goddard collection, does it not?
But Goddard wasn’t in the mood for her standard smile-inducing, frothy frocks when she first came out of lockdown. Per her show notes, the designer was feeling down, as we all were, and set out to design a more subdued collection, something “pared down” in all “neutral tones.”
Until, that was, she understood the role she plays in making the fashion industry (and herself) smile, even in tough times. “As we returned slowly to the studio, after months of working as a team over Zoom, I realized how dark and depressing the last few months had been and more and more color crept in…”
More color indeed—in clashing colors and patterns inspired by the Villa Menafoglio and Guiseppe and Giovanna Panza’s art collection, which features textured and messy Claus Oldenburgpapier-mache dresses alongside sleek and simple Robert Morris sculptures. While fashion lovers have always gravitated to Goddard’s designs, this collection will surely win her new fans ready to try dopamine dressing. —Carrie Goldberg
Michael Halpern made his name with Studio 54-inspired eveningwear. So what’s a disco-loving designer to do about his spring 2021 collection, shown in the time of COVID-19 when there’s absolutely nothing on the social calendar for the foreseeable future?
While there were fewer sequins overall, Halpern created his most exuberant, couture-like silhouettes to date.
(An emerald and black polka-dot silk draped orb dress and tea-length dress melding leopard jacquard with an explosion of ombré pink-to-black plumes were particular standouts.)
Then, he invited eight “frontline heroines”—AKA essential workers including an ICU nurse, an OB/GYN, and a night bus station manager—to model in his lookbook. And he turned the shoot into a full fledged dance party (socially distanced, of course).
“This collection was created in celebration of the women on the frontline, and for anyone it may inspire and uplift,” the designer explained in his show notes. —Alison S. Cohn
