nyfw: rag & bone
(images via wwd)
outerwear, outerwear…the beat we keep hearing vehemently repeated at new york fashion week is replayed once again chez rag & bone, where the fall 2011 collection made for one of the more interesting theme interplays-come-hippest of the bunch.
designers david neville & marcus wainwright used ideas of a futuristic people living in the arctic circle combined with seventies skiwear (and what felt like football uniforms), as well as traditional tartans thrown in to make up the season’s show.
the sound of the collection is rather revolting as simply put words on paper, and, to be sure, nicely showed off the designers’ skill set. the mixed references could have been taken with a heavy hipster hand, looking like a messy melange of goodwill shopping, but instead usually came off as sleekly jaunty—equal parts retro, tribal, and sporty.
style’s review name-checks balenciaga as either an inspiration or kindred spirit, which is certainly true in feeling if not aesthetic. the label has made a nice profit (and carved a pleasant niche in the editorial world, a roommate of mine back in fashion school once pointing out that the label could veritably show nothing more than ripped t-shirts and draw raves—something it came very close to doing last season, in fact, with its punky fiasco) from the selling of retro futurism, so it certainly makes sense for a few others to try to get in on the profits.
in other rag & bone news, the label is in the midst of what it calls the “diy project”, which was started with a campaign of it models ‘photographing themselves’, with complete sartorial freedom, in the clothing. (yes, many of the pictures are phenomenal, particularly abbey lee kershaw’s, but i can’t help wondering how authentic the whole thing really is) the project itself basically entails more of the same, sans the famous subjects.
that’s interesting simply because, coupled with the latest successful output in the form of a collection, the label is rollin’ indeed. they’ve captured the high fashionies’ attention, as well as the overtly cool kids (enthused into oblivion of motivation with any mention of the phrase ‘diy’), and are now poised near to the top of the new york fashion scene—for the moment, at least. whether they do anything with it remains to be seen, but we should all be ready for the masses to follow where they lead in the next couple of months and, perhaps, beyond.
(enjoy a brief show video here)
