In yesterday's post we looked at a frilly and ruffled collection showcased during New York Fashion Week that may have been filed under the "costumes for fantasyland" category. Yet, luckily, on some of the NYFW runways there was also a healthy dose of politics.
Before his show took place, Prabal Gurung posted on his official Instagram page his S/S 20 Collection Notes, accompanied by the main inspiration for the collection, the November 26 - December 3, 2018 cover of Time magazine, an issue that focused on a dilemma many migrants live - how does it feel to love a country that's not sure about you. One question on the cover - "Who gets to be American?" - also invited readers to consider how the U.S. decides whom to let in.
Born in Singapore and with his family in Nepal, Gurung may have the answers to some of these questions. In the collection notes the designer wrote about how he travelled from Nepal to India, London, Australia and arrived in New York City searching for the American dream.
The designer actually found it and is still living his American dream: he became a US citizen in 2013 and still conceives America as a "beacon of hope", firmly believing in its melting pot culture where his collections are designed and made (90% of his S/S 20 collection is made in New York City).
Yet Gurung is not naive and he has been pondering a lot about identity, migrants and the American dream since President Trump was elected, making his views about him very clear. In August, a few weeks before this show that was going to celebrate his 10th anniversary, the designer announced for example that he was changing venue and moving away from The Vessel in Hudson Yards, after it was announced that the billionaire real estate developer behind it, Stephen Ross, Chairman and Founder of Related Companies, was hosting a Hamptons fundraiser for Trump.
On his Instagram page the designer stated about his decision: "This is no longer about party lines, especially now with all the mass murders at the hands of domestic terrorists and white supremacists. Rather, this is a choice that one needs to make now. This is about choosing between two sides, the right or the wrong sides of the history."
On his runway Gurung celebrated American fashion history combining sportswear, workwear, cocktail and evening gowns with Eastern echoes to acknowledge his own traditions.
Designs went from Labour Day white frocks and separates to denim jumpsuits à la Rosie the Riveter; from sportswear to sarongs, from bright prints of roses, floral emblem of the USA, and shibori-dyed tops in the colours of the American flag, to ample and voluminous gowns evoking Charles James. Accessories also created contrasts and went from elegant sandals to sneakers and cowboy boots.
Headbands with feathers added a frivilous touch, but the final wasn't frivolous at all as the diverse cast of models who came from Brooklyn to South Sudan, returned wearing sashes as if they were contestants in a beauty pageant, yet the sashes were not telling us what beauty title they had won but asked the audience "Who gets to be American?"
So, while Gurung was thinking about national identities in intangible terms, Jonathan Cohen interpreted the concept more literally moving from a tangible symbol - the American flag - that he proceeded to reinvent.
His show opened with a dress that combined his own personal heritage and experience: growing up in San Diego, Cohen never conceived the American and Mexican cultures as two separate entities, but as spirits combined together. This concept was the main inspiration behind the opening shirt dress in which the classic American flag as sewed in the legend by Betsy Ross, was reinvented as a traditional serape blanket flayed at the edges and covered with stars and rainbow coloured stripes.
The dress, modelled by a Mexican girl, was embroidered by hand in Mexico City, and its maker left her hand-stitched signature on the back of the dress (Cohen managed to pay homage in this way to Mexico and Mexican styles and crafts without appropriating them).
While not all the collection was made by hand in Mexico, Cohen also tried to look at another aspect in his functional collection, sustainability. Fabric strips were recycled to make a woven skirt or wrapped around Teva sandals as decorative accents and the designer also upcycled thousands of Swarovski crystals, reusing them for cocktail dresses and for accessories.
Cohen also added a touch of elegance via his trademark handkerchief dresses, reinvented as evening gowns and as tailored coats, while the theme of the flag came back in the final gown. This time the flag was completely deconstructed, with the stripes turning into three-dimentional appliqued motifs, almost to symbolise the many souls living in the USA.
Just a few seasons ago Raf Simons' at Calvin Klein was stuck in American tropes and American horror stories, but these collections suggest us that the horror should be left behind. Only then we will discover that the secret to thrive in the USA (and anywhere else in the world...) doesn't stand in building barriers but in bringing them down.
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