We’re Just Doing Us: Altuzarra, Baja East and Alexander Wang

In New York, you’re not supposed to feel the same sort of gravity you do when you’re looking at a collection in Paris, or even in Milan. Likewise, when compared to London, we’re not quite a shining example of the wackiness archetypically on display there. The past several seasons have struggled to find its place on the scale between too serious and too silly but the spring/summer 2016 season is shaping up to look a lot like an indication that we’re getting back to the root of our identity. Which is, of course, a contemporary market with sprinklings of profound high fashion that don’t need to command a conversation and yet, do. Is this because the clothes are telling us to take it easy?

At Altuzarra, woven belts fastened at the waist of a crinkled linen pencil skirt replete with a thigh slit and button down blouse that could have, in a line up, been identified from a mile away. The collection often feels like a tender sandwich because it doesn’t matter what’s put into it: whether you’re vegetarian or passionate about ground beef, you always know, from whichever vantage point, that a sandwich is a sandwich. No ear went un-ringed with a pair of leather tags. There were sprinklings of tie dye set on a blouse and some dresses — one of which featured toggle buttons, coming up in several places this season — and sequins and beadwork that complimented the espadrille heels and an overall affection towards the supermodel of the 90s with pleats on facile a-line silhouettes that seemed to want to invite you in for some lemonade.

If ever there was a moment for a brand that has built itself on the basic tenets of creating cool, unisex clothes that make you feel like while you’re wearing them, you should be waxing a surfboard, it’s now. Living on the west coast, it seems, can be a state of mind — and this is precisely what makes Baja East an exciting moment on the fashion week calendar. Designers Scott Studenberg and John Tarragon do what they want. That was evidenced last night by embellished neo-saris and flimsy but larger-than-life tie dye pants. You get the sense while you’re looking at this show that both Tarragon and Studenberg are having fun and want to rope us into it. There’s a tactical craft — a laid back energy that is countered by technical ability, but the point seems to be that we’re not in it for the fashion, that’s just a positive side effect.

Last night was a significant moment in Wang history. This month marks the 10th anniversary of Alexander Wang’s launch and what a decade it has been. His tenure at Balenciaga is coming to a close and last night, as evidenced with striped pants and structural jackets, crop tops, denim boxer shorts and fishnet shirts, lacework and precisely the ilk of nonsensical combinations that quite frankly change the way you interact with your wardrobe, like New York, he’s convicted — and succeeding — to bring what’s great about his stuff back to their roots.

Photographs via Vogue Runway and NowFashion.com

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