Where DNA Trumps Evolution

The millennial generation is said to be composed of two disparate groups. There are the technology immigrants and the natives. What separates the two is simply a matter of time. While the former group, born earlier, had to learn social media, the latter has it built into its younger DNA. Yesterday at fashion week presented the question: can this concept of native vs. immigrant be applied to fashion?

Public School showed their SS15 collection yesterday at Milk Studios in a show that resembled a high-level party bus with its dense celebrity front row, white confetti covered floors and a soundtrack, being spun by a DJ as part of the shows decor right across the photo pit. While I sat and observed as a deluge of black pants and tailored waist coats rap-walked* down the two-aisled runway, I wondered why the brand has accrued the hype it has.

Conclusion? The cool factor. Not even a cinched waist or skater style silk skirt set in a water color print could compromise an iota of swagger from the label. This brand, at its core, is a product of the most prominent shift to permeate fashion: “elevated sportswear” and street-wear. And with Public School, there’s no learning curve, no need to adjust to changing times in fashion. This brand maintains an inherent sense of cool that belongs as much to it as Instagram does to a later born Gen Y’er.

Another brand that seems well aware of its place within fashion is Derek Lam, who reminds me on a seasonal basis that fashion week is not about reinventing the wheel. Quite the contrary — as a designer, there is one obligation and that is to create clothes that people will want to wear. In order to do that well, of course, the designer’s point of view must be taken into account, it must be massaged and handled with care. As seasons progress, this point of view should be made to feel a little bit fresher, perhaps more polished, but it should never become something different all together. Displaying a group of high-rise flared, streamlined pants, blouses that surprise you with their cut out details and bibs and then the season’s update: a heavy emphasis on the 70s in the form of suede purple patches, Derek Lam seems to underscore how well he and his partner Jan Hendrik Schlottman understand this every single season.

At Thakoon, Mr. Panichgul referenced at least three themes but melded them together so seamlessly and elegantly that you probably couldn’t even tell that what you were saw was a marriage of varying tribal (beaded tassels),  tropical (Tahitian floral prints) and French (one particular bordeaux-colored robe de chambre) origins. Though this wheel may have appeared vaguely reinvented, the Thakoon blueprints still stood strong with at least four cinched waist lines and a particularly resplendent play on unique, muted colors and varying prints.

Where Sunday ended, a new era for Versus Versace began. The brand tapped Anthony Vaccarrello as its newest designer, working alongside Donatella the Great. And it only took a mere glance at the collection for it to come together in one large resounding “duh.” With its emphasis on black, gold detailing, leggy, leggy legs and the geometric swirls emblematic of the Versace brand, Vaccarrello, known for the sex appeal he infuses into the high fashion world with his eponymous label may very well have found that while he’s largely an immigrant where Versus is concerned, he displays the character traits of a native, breathing precisely the air of relevance its craves into the lungs of its DNA.

All Images via Style.com