KTZ AW15’16 READY-TO-WEAR NEW YORK FASHION WEEK

London-based label KTZ made its first-ever New York fashion week appearance this afternoon. The brand isn’t necessarily decamping to the city for good: According to creative director Marjan Pejoski, he and partner Sasko Bezovski just felt like they wanted to do “something new” this season, and the energy in New York invigorated them. They might be back in London next time out—or somewhere else, for that matter. Submitting to the impulse to roam is characteristic of KTZ, whose collections are always loosely ethnographic takes on journeys through foreign lands.

Pejoski’s muse would appear to be a nomad for whom life is one long Burning Man. And this season he had his mind on America, appropriately enough. Pejoski was glossing the traditional aesthetics of Native American tribes—a mishmash of them, really. It’s not his intention to be accurate. But his take was certainly evocative; the draped shearlings, colorful faux furs, and embroidered blanket coats called to mind both classic Native American dress and contemporary club outfits. It’s the clubby touch that defangs Pejoski’s appropriations and renders them inoffensive. A nightclub is a big playroom, after all, and clubgoers are big kids playing kinky dress-up. And as covered-up as KTZ’s clothes are, they don’t stint on the kink, either. Pejoski’s buckle-detailed faux-leather dresses had a strong whiff of the dungeon about them, for instance. All this sounds terribly niche, of course, and it’s true that the KTZ following is a bit of a global clique. But there were an impressive number of pieces here with terrific crossover potential, like the embroidered tees, or the pencil skirts and leggings in faux leather, perhaps the sharpest in that material that this reviewer has ever seen. Pejoski knows his craft, a fact easily disguised by the maximal decoration of his clothes. But then again, he also knows his audience, and more, more, more is clearly what they’re looking for.