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FashionLucire fall-winter 2004

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Alongside these jackets and overly aggressive tops, they showed their version of the knee-pant American football players wear, with the models looking sullen and slightly constipated

Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough of Proenza Schouler

NO ONE IN RECENT HISTORY—absolutely no young emerging designer or design team—has garnered as much attention from the fashion media so early in their careers as Jack McCollough and Lazaro Henandez of Proenza Schouler has since their graduation from New York City’s Parsons School of Design in 2002. Their graduation project–collection in their senior year at Parsons was said to ‘glamorous yet hard, pared down the essentials: a pencil skirt, a boléro jacket that hit right below the breast and all of it in a palette of dirty pastels just right for a city summer.’
   With all the stars in alignment and an instinctive ability to ingratiate themselves with the powerful members of our nomadic tribe, it got picked up by Julie Gilhart, the fashion director for Barney’s, Jeffrey Kalinsky of Jeffrey New York and Linda Dresner of the Linda Dresner chain of high-end boutiques—influentially powerful voices within the industry who have been known to make and break designers. Their fall 2003 fashion show, their very first runway show, cemented in many people’s minds what we know view as their signature ideas of proportion (fitted, shrunken jackets, pencil skirts, beautifully cut pea coats), colour (various shades of browns, greens, greys and purples), and silhouette (sleek, minimalist with body hugging accents).
   So again, we ask the question: is Proenza Schouler the face of New York fashion’s future? Their current collection, shown last February, gave us some sort of an answer, although it wasn’t the one we were hoping to hear. The boys went back to the 1980s and showed their version of "power jackets" that made the ’80s such a style oasis. Alongside these jackets and otherwise overly aggressive tops, they showed their version of the knee-pant American football players wear on the playing field, with the models looking sullen and slightly constipated. What should have been a pleasure to behold left me shaking my head and wondering if these boys need some ex-lax to clear out their systems.
   I cannot, from where I am sitting, imagine the amount of pressure they are under to succeed with every collection they send out. I cannot fathom what it must be like to be in their shoes, with the all-powerful eyes of the fashion world watching my every step; but it shouldn’t be this painful. Really. The pieces in this collection that I liked are the one where they hark back to their roots, per se, but employed incremental improvements on the originals. I like the dresses that utilize their usually excellent corsetry detailing that has made their reputations. These pieces rock. I like the "poor boy" preppy looking sweaters and tops shown early in the show for their seamless mixture of masculine and feminine design characteristics. Of all the pieces shown, my absolute favourite has to be the red silk dress (with spaghetti straps and pronounced corsetry detailing around the bust). It speaks well of their past and even more so for their future.
   For Messrs Hernandez and McCollough to grow as designers, they have to take chances and fail and discover just what their limits are. It makes me feel just a little sad that they don’t have the luxury to try new things and succeed (or fail) on a less conspicuous level. They do have the talent to go the distance, and like everyone else in the industry, I will endeavour to give them all the room they will need to make the transition as smooth as possible.

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