Inside the romantic, beautifully decaying interior of an abandoned 19th Century downtown hotel (the incredible 5 Beekman Street, scheduled to be restored by 2014) New York’s most exciting young label presented their latest collection – and what a way to wrap fashion week. With the launch last week of their first store – on Madison Avenue no less – expectations of design duoJack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez were high, and as they have every season in recent memory, they nailed it with genuine ingenuity.
Inspired by the utter randomness of Tumblr and the cyber world, McCollough and Hernandez paid homage to the power of technology and the digital age with anomalous all-over photographic prints on low-slung A-line skirts and flattering knee-length dresses. There seemed to be something of a throwback to late 90s, early 2000’s cyber-punk styles, with perforated leather oversize t-shirt tops, zip-front dresses and jackets covered with metal eyelets, but it was in the experimental patch-working of multi-hued python that the collection shined. Their new flagship store may be decidedly uptown, but the designer’s key look for S/S13 – bold patch-worked python jean vests and skirts – prove their downtown cool aesthetic is staying just that.
