News feed
In fashion, simplicity is often much more difficult to master than maximalism. This was clear at Proenza Schouler’s Fall/Winter 2023 collection, where co-creative directors Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez showed clothes that were sophisticated, elegant, and unapologetically pared-back. The collection marked the brand’s 20th year as purveyors of effortless New York cool—so who better to open the show than quintessential NYC cool girl Chloë Sevigny, who stepped out in a sharp tailored blazer tied at the waist, layered over a crisp white shirt, a leather wrap skirt, and high-knee slouchy boots.
The look set the scene for a collection that went back to basics. Over the years, McCollough and Hernandez have proved themselves to be deft creators of prints (remember the tie-dye dresses that ruled 2018?), but this collection was largely devoid of them. Instead, they endeavored to create, “just clothes”. “We’re tired of all this fantasy and Instagram clothes,” Hernandez told Harper’s BAZAAR. The end result? Beautiful wool coats with broad lapels worn over perfectly cut straight-leg leather trousers. Simple black crêpe de chine dresses with white pom pom tassels sprinkled along the hem. Day dresses in crushed velvet, and low-slung full-length skirts with dramatic slits.
This season many of the major New York designers are notably absent from the schedule—Tom Ford, Ralph Lauren, Peter Do, and Marc Jacobs have all decided not to show (Jacobs presented an homage to Vivienne Westwood for FW ‘22 a couple of weeks back). These perceived gaps in the lineup have only proved just how formidable Proenza Schouler are as leading innovators in American fashion. Their front row was littered with a who’s who of fabulous New Yorkers (think Sienna Miller, with her nine-year-old daughter Harper in tow, and Sevigny’s long-time friend and Poker Face co-star Natasha Lyonne), and the collections’ soundtrack was a series of vignettes written by the celebrated New York-based author Otessa Moshfegh, and read by Sevigny. They described a New York woman as she flitted around art galleries and traded gossip with friends at fabulous downtown restaurants. It was a reminder, in case we needed one, that the chicest women in New York will always reach for Proenza Schouler.
