PROENZA SCHOULER AUTUMN/WINTER 2015-16 READY-TO-WEAR
THERE was a tightening up of ideas this evening at Proenza Schouler as Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez presented a hit autumn collection.
Their imaginations were stirred by the work of Helen Frankenthaler, the American expressionist painter, and conceptual artist, Robert Morris. The slicing of hemlines was a direct homage to Morris’ felted panel installations whereas the link to Frankenthaler was less obvious, but there was certainly a free-spiritedness and freedom to the way those hemlines moved that certainly seem to tally with her paintings.
Regardless of how those artists played a part, it all worked. Long and lean was the message: bandage-tight up top with long narrow sleeves extending past fingertips, while skits were cut into considered slits allowing for movement. It made for a strong look. The shape was executed in tweedy tops and skirts partnered with curly grey Mongolian shrugs, cow hide dresses and boiled felt coats with inside-out seams.
Sheer sheaths decorated in eyelets and eruptions of Mongolian, feathers and fox felt punkish in combinations of red, white and black, those chaotic scribble prints were another crowd pleaser. Proenza Schouler girls will find a lot to like come autumn.