After taking the fashion crowd to Madrid last season, exploring the rich history of local architecture and the arts in the Spanish capital, Carolina Herrera’s Wes Gordon returned to New York Thursday morning to celebrate creatives, centering the collection on the range of women who have helped shape the landscape of art.
“I’m celebrating the kind of women who are often overlooked through history,” Gordon said at a preview in his studio, naming Peggy Guggenheim, a legend whose unique fashion and accessories were integral to her and who was on his mood board.
It’s a topic that is personal to the brand with its global platform Woman in the Arts, which has supported a range of projects around the world — from the “Maestras” exhibition at the Museo Thyssen in Madrid to the launch of a dedicated sewing class at the Spectaculu school in Rio de Janeiro.
A sunlit raw space in the Meatpacking District had been transformed for the show by American artist Sarah Oliphant — known for her large-scale scenic paintings, she created a series of hand-painted works designed specifically for the venue, which set the seasonal tone. “It feels like an artist’s studio,” Gordon said of the space.
On the runway, he presented a multigenerational slice of the contemporary art community, each real-life muses and all of whom walked the show, including Amy Sherald, Anh Duong, Eliza Douglas, Floria Currin, Hannah Traore, Ming Smith and Rachel Feinstein.
Gordon established a restrained glamour with pieces that were a bit Hitchcock ’60s hourglass, a bit ’80s with rounded puff shoulders and couture coded with sculpted jackets, knits, tulip-shape skirts and diaphanous printed dresses that floated off the body.
Leopard was a key pattern, seen in white and black on coats, dresses and knits, pencil skirts just below the knee — a bit higher than in past collections — while other ideas were embellished, for instance, a dress and coat in tiered gold, both a bit looser in fit, for a modern day Truman Capote Swan. She also would stand out in one of the knit sequin dresses in green and purple that draped with ease, humming as they walked by.
A softly sweet drawing of a heel, a nod to the bottle of the brand’s global bestselling Good Girl perfume marking its 10-year anniversary, established a contemporary playfulness on blouses and skirts that were fit for a day at a gallery, or the office.
He grounded it all with a kitten heel with simple bows and boxy handbags or clutches with metal floral details, harking back to jewelry, and a column gown with the same metal detail.
There was an exuberance, but also a pragmatism, Gordon said of his creations. It rang true, marking a new purity and straightforwardness that grounded imagination in modern dress.
