For this anniversary cuvée, the creative duo Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough broke with their usual creative process.
Most often, "we immerse ourselves in a story, a theme, a feeling", explained, after the parade, Lazaro Hernandez.
"But this time, there was none of that. We started with photo portraits of the women in our lives who inspire us and respect us."
Among them, the New York actress Chloë Sevigny, who opened the parade on Saturday wearing a suit and a long leather skirt, a material very present in this vintage.
Long accustomed to avant-garde and conceptual fashion, with strong aesthetic biases, Proenza Schouler has evolved in recent years towards a more pragmatic wardrobe, of which this fall/winter 2023 collection appears as a culmination.
"We were tired of all this fantasy, Instagram clothing," Lazaro Hernandez described.
The collection includes several relatively strict trouser suits, many skirts below the knee, enhanced with high boots, often in leather, clothing with character but without showing off.
Proenza has not abandoned the sophistication, clearly visible on these dresses of great fluidity whose bottom opened in multicolored petals when the models walked, under the eyes of Marc Jacobs, who came as a neighbor.
The collar of a bright yellow suit so wide that it exceeds the shoulder, the tail of an asymmetrical dress that falls along one arm, the two designers know how to subtly transform a silhouette with a touch.
Models from the Proenza Schouler fashion show, February 11, 2023 in New York © Ed JONES / AFP
This twentieth anniversary collection opens "a new chapter for us", explained Jack McCollough.
"It's the start of something else, something more adult, maybe. We grew up before your eyes. It's time to grow up and become an adult."
This new way of designing, without pre-identified landmarks, pleased the duo.
"It's good, sometimes, to have a source that you can draw on, but it's also liberating to be able to let go of everything", argued Jack McCollough, "to think only of the materials and the spirit of a woman".
© 2023 AFP