It's funny but since Stephanie Lake, designer, curator, auction specialist and the caretaker of the Bonnie Cashin archive (and author of the volume Bonnie Cashin: Chic Is Where You Find It) launched the @cashincopy Instagram account to rediscover the links between modern fashion and Cashin's trademark styles, reinvented versions of Cashin's designs or concepts have proliferated.
So after seeing Bonnie Cashin's Seven Easy Pieces becoming eight in two cases last year, one of her best ideas reappeared on a New York Fashion Week runway.
Linder's official women's wear-only show designed by Sam Linder (after dividing the women's and men's businesses with Kirk Millar), opened with mythological inspirations that included Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, witches and paganism, ideas that were symbolised by the handbags swinging from archery bows, lunar moods and bonfire prints.
By the third/fourth look, though, the mythological inspiration had already died to give way to what Linder called "granny" looks symbolised by thick tartan skirts (a take on Cashin's iconic woven fabrics?).
The latter featured an iconic element, kiss locks were used instead of pockets, a trick replicated on a light pale blue blazer and a faux fur coat.
The kiss lock replacing the pocket is actually a brilliant, fun, practical and functional idea, it is so brilliant that Bonnie Cashin filed a request to patent it in 1949 and consistently reused it in skirts, coats and jackets, turning it into one of her signature styles.
As a bonus, the collection aslo featured a fringed bag slightly reminiscent of Cashin's 1965 fringed Krazy Klutch bag for Coach.
It is great to see that designs from almost 70 years ago can still be fashionably intriguing and look incredibly modern, but this makes us wonder if we should really care about modern fashion. Probably not, but if you spot a Bonnie Cashin design in a vintage shop, just grab it, it will probably be incredibly hip in less than three months' time.
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