That Chloë Sevigny has co-signed the work of Giovanna Flores is a big deal. It matters not only because the actor has admirable style, but because as the face of Kim Gordon’s X-Girl and as sometime Imitation of Christ creative director, Sevigny can say, as LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy does in “Losing My Edge,” “I was there.” There at the heart of New York City’s late ’90s, early aughts indie fashion scene, that is.
Flores is perhaps the most freeform of the new gen of designers following in the footsteps of Susan Cianciolo, Elsa Jimenez, and the Asfour quartet. “I do reference vintage clothing a lot and also sentimental clothing, but I feel like the clothes don’t really read like that. It’s almost like if they had a baby with a car or a new toy. I like my work to have a freshness where even I don’t understand it at first,” the designer said.
The mostly deadstock materials Flores collects direct her collections. The designer doesn’t use patterns and makes everything herself, resulting in aha! moments regularly while sitting at her sewing machine. “There’s a rawness to the process and I discover a lot while I’m doing it,” she said. Delight in discovery and a sense of play come through in the work, which often has a kind of kooky awkwardness. Here designs were also quite interactive, coming alive by stretching and morphing on the body.
After working with prints for a few seasons, Flores turned her attention to vibrant color for fall, having bought quantities of vibrant stretch velours. When she opened the boxes she discovered that the material had been cut into long vertical panels in such a way as to reduce the pull. And so innovation was born from necessity. Flores said she welcomes obstacles and among her solves was color-blocking the pieces and finishing the edges with an overlock stitch. Sleeve innovations were another fix. There was a yellow top in which a triangle of fabric was attached at the shoulder that fell like a handkerchief hem over the arm. Then there were sleeve insets that start over the breast and extend to the arm, causing the fabric to pull and gather. The effect was almost medieval. “I like things when they’re not just decorative and they kind of have this—I guess I wouldn’t really call it function—but it alters the body,” Flores said.
Also in the mix was a cozy striped set in which the padded edges of the jacket were lined in leopard. Stuffed waistlines were also used on pants. Fabric remnants inset into polos made the classic pop-over torque around the body. In lieu of bracelets and shoes, the designer wrapped and knotted strips of material around the models’ wrists and stockinged feet. (This styling was in the spirit of a seemingly no-sew 1968 Vogue shoot in the desert where Giorgio di Sant’Angelo enveloped Veruschka in yards of material.) “I look at this work like sketches, and I let them be quick, allowing the bigger part of the work to be free,” said Flores. Her motto might be Make Do and Make Magic.