If you want to work in the fashion industry you have to ask yourself a few questions, including "How can I make a difference?" or "What is my strength?" and "How could I change fashion in a personal and unique way?"
Are you great at finding solutions and designing clothes and accessories that can improve for example the lives of people, such as consumers with disabilities? Or do you like experimenting with innovative materials that can help us preserving our planet and reduce pollution? Do you have a brilliant idea for a collaboration with a textile manufacturer to develop an exclusive fabric? Well then, try using your skills and talents in these fields, bearing in mind that the real fashion industry has been saturated by labels, designers and fashion houses, so you must genuinely make a difference. Or maybe not. After all labels such as Deveaux aren't truly making any difference.
Founded by Andrea Tsao and Matthew Breen, and boasting a sui generis Creative Director, street style photographer Tommy Ton, who joined the brand around a year ago, the label showcased during New York Fashion Week a combined collection of men and women's looks.
The collection was presented through a performance-like show with models of all ages freely walking around the space, stopping and embracing in a choreography by Stephen Galloway.
Clothes included single-breasted camel coats with plaid inserts and teddy fur coats; easy fit buttonless jackets that fastened on the inside via an asymmetrical strap (a trend widely seen on runways), cashmere sweaters covered with asymmetrical capes carefully tossed over one shoulder; straight-leg (or were they just ill fitting and badly constructed?) pants or corduroy trousers and overalls borrowed from workwear (some of these pieces were already shown in January during the men's shows).
The idea for the team behind the label is to offer loose fitting genderless everyday garments that are supposed to be elegant and stylish, yet also minimal and functional like uniforms. The message for this one-for-all collection seemed to be inclusive: diversity was the keyword on this runway, with the youngest model being just 13 and the oldest 82. Yet, while all these choices seemed to tick all the proper boxes (inclusive, genderless, sensible clothes...), the final impression was that of seeing a safe collection.
Tommy Ton has been taking pics of fashion peacocks in the streets for a decade now and has also been to hundreds of fashion shows, yet Deveaux's collections have so far been sanitised versions of what he has been photographing.
The people he shoots with his camera are supposed to be unique in their styles; the people in this show looked more or less the same, almost as if Ton was telling us that grand, extravagant or glamorous fashion is not for each and everyone of us, but for some, all the rest should conform and hide behind beige, camel, pale blu, navy and grey shades, carefully camouflaged under a veneer of normal blandness. Or maybe, while he recognises the uniqueness of his characters, he also admits that such looks are not possible in real life outside the fashion circle (or maybe circus?).
Deveaux claims this is elegant minimalist fashion for everyone, but there are tons of labels doing clothes such as these in better or worse quality so why would you have to opt for these cashmere pieces where you could have better ones?
As a whole Deveaux looks like a redundant déjà vu pastiche of collections by Céline (as designed by Phoebe Philo – Ton is a fan) Max Mara, Brunello Cucinelli, and Cos (in a previous collection models were accessorised with H&M and Mango earrings and shoes, which makes you wonder if Cos clothes were also integrated in the collection...).
Urban uniforms are all fine, but you can do your own urban uniform combining more luxurious or cheaper pieces than the ones seen on this runway and source them from other labels producing better quality or cheaper clothes.
As it stands Deveaux's minimal spirit is a bit like Marie Kondo's design for life - neat and tidy, but essentially lacking emotions, memories, warmth and depth and with a slight detachment from reality (rarely do 13-year-olds want to wear navy and grey outside of the school environment, after all you have your entire life to become bland and boring...). Final verdict? Tommy Ton may have a great visual talent when it comes to taking pictures of street fashion, but that doesn't automatically make him an original fashion designer nor a flawless stylist.
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