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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
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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.
CONTINUED
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