Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Courtesy of Altuzarra, Diotima, Eckhaus Latta
When designers draw on the work of great artists, it’s usually in support of a wardrobe theme. They want to show, as Joseph Altuzarra ably did in his fall collection, the tension between, say, restraint and excess: a snug suede jacket with a long flaring skirt in brown tweed with a fringed hem, a peacoat with a flamenco skirt in black silk backed in white. Altuzarra cited an impressive group of Spanish influences—Velazquez, Bunuel, Almodovar. Yet he also didn’t take any chances. His crisp painter’s pants and cottage-like knits speak to a customer not looking for actual drama or change.
From left: Photo: Isidore Montag / Gorunway / Courtesy of AltuzarraPhoto: Isidore Montag / Gorunway / Courtesy of Altuzarra
From top: Photo: Isidore Montag / Gorunway / Courtesy of AltuzarraPhoto: Isidore Montag / Gorunway / Courtesy of Altuzarra
Rachel Scott, by contrast, took a real risk this season for Diotima, the brand she started in 2021, after working in the industry in Italy and New York. Last fall, she got in touch with Eskil Lam, the head of the Wifredo Lam Archive, in Paris, and a son of the Cuban-born painter, whose work is the subject of a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art.
Not only did Scott long admire Lam’s art but she also saw parallels between her personal story and his. She, too, grew up in the Caribbean (in Jamaica) and trained in Europe. She, too, is political. In 1923, Lam went to study art in Madrid, where his political consciousness was raised by the rise of General Franco and fascism. Spain was the only country that actually resisted fascism, and Lam joined that battle before moving to Paris. He became friends with Picasso, who stored Lam’s paintings during the Second World War, when Lam fled to Cuba. Influenced by Afro-Cuban culture and religion, and having lived in Europe, he changed his practice, producing in 1943 one of his greatest works, “The Jungle,” a gauche on paper of sugar cane, tropical fruit and strange, masked figures. Unable to obtain canvas during the war, he made do with kraft paper.
Eskil Lam has said that his father’s work belonged to no single art movement. It had characteristics of Cubism and Surrealism but more than anything, perhaps, it reflected Lam’s moral and political concerns about colonialism and the tendency in the West to make primitive things in regions like the Caribbean seem “exotic,” largely through tourism and sometimes fashion.
If Scott has demonstrated anything with Diotima, it is that she has a conscience—and not merely worn on her sleeve. She told me she felt a big responsibility to not do something literal with Lam’s work. And she didn’t. She extracted from his pigments her deep red, gray-blue, ochres, earthy browns, and fallow green. She interpreted his blurred or complex imagery in the opening dress, a halter style in embroidered organza, and also in an opaque, crepe jacquard column that shows the body.
From left: Photo: IK ALDAMA/Courtesy of DiotimaPhoto: IK ALDAMA/Courtesy of Diotima
From top: Photo: IK ALDAMA/Courtesy of DiotimaPhoto: IK ALDAMA/Courtesy of Diotima
And she drew a visual connection to the elongated form of the sugar cane with many lean looks, including a severe coat in an ochre wool.
Photo: IK ALDAMA/Courtesy of Diotima
And because some of Lam’s work dealt with a mythic figure of a femme cheval, or horse woman, Scott developed a strong riding silhouette, styled with a whip. The cut looked fresh and, for Scott, a broadening of her aesthetic. She eliminated a lot of Diotima’s embellishment, which, to me, was becoming a dead end anyway. “I wanted to keep the seriousness and severity,” she explained. And she was touched by Lam’s personal style, the fact that he liked corduroys, for example. She came up with a loose masculine shirt and trousers in tan cotton twill that she had embroidered (in India) with brown beaded stripes. Some handwork was done by Refugee Atelier, a group of immigrant artisans.
From left: Photo: IK ALDAMA/Courtesy of DiotimaPhoto: IK ALDAMA/Courtesy of Diotima
From top: Photo: IK ALDAMA/Courtesy of DiotimaPhoto: IK ALDAMA/Courtesy of Diotima
“Obviously the timing of the retrospective matters but also with everything that’s happening in America and in the Caribbean region,” Scott said, her thoughts trailing off. “This was really an impossible task to do but I just felt I had to do it.” She added, thinking back over the last year or two, “I just became confident to do what I wanted to do. I never started this brand to be a merch brand. I didn’t spent 17 years working towards this to do that.”
Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta are in no danger of losing their integrity, although their new collection struck me as a rather tentative follow-up to their brilliant, cooly seductive spring show. Don’t get me wrong: I think Latta and Eckhaus, who started their label in 2011, should be designing Calvin Klein. Think of what they’ve done with denim and knitwear, how they understand the body and contemporary attitudes. They’d be amazing at Calvin, right?
But maybe because these are weird, unsettled times, it’s hard to get one’s bearings. “A lot of our process is very intuitive,” as Eckhaus said. “It’s not that they’re cerebral exercises for us. It’s clothing. It’s not something we want to be performative or too complicated or fussy.” Among their best styles were jeans with a split, double-waistband and denim chaps that can be converted into hot shorts; multicolored striped sweaters that evoke a children’s knit in their simplicity and smallness; and an array of new—for the brand—shearing and leather pieces. One shredded-looking black coat is actually laminated faux shearling.
From left: Photo: MADISON VOELKEL/BFAPhoto: MADISON VOELKEL/BFA
From top: Photo: MADISON VOELKEL/BFAPhoto: MADISON VOELKEL/BFA
And what you can’t tell from images is how quietly revealing many of the clothes are. A pair of the double-waistband jeans was shown with a polo shirt that is entirely backless. Other styles have well-placed slits. And a lovely tunic in palest pink satin loosely wraps over a sheer cream-colored shift. It’s Eckhaus and Latta’s wonderful counter to fancy, rich-people clothes.
Photo: Cathy Horyn
Other collections of note as the New York shows closed were Attersee, by founder Isabel Wilkinson, which in a modest yet fresh way played with primary colors—for a waist-snatched cotton shirt in deep blue and an oversized red pullover. I also liked her minimalist take on evening: a silver beaded apron tied (with cream satin tapes) over trousers.
From left: Photo: Courtesy of AtterseePhoto: Courtesy of Attersee
From top: Photo: Courtesy of AtterseePhoto: Courtesy of Attersee
And Zane Li, a finalist for this year’s LVMH Prize, continued to find novel ways to shape sportswear and styles based on couture’s old volumes. Li knows how to wrestle an abstract idea into something concrete and fun, but he seemed befuddled by the point of some simple shapes covered or trimmed in drab shag fur. I know I was.
From left: Photo: GREG KESSLER/KESSLER STUDIO/Courtesy of LiiPhoto: GREG KESSLER/KESSLER STUDIO/Courtesy of Lii
From top: Photo: GREG KESSLER/KESSLER STUDIO/Courtesy of LiiPhoto: GREG KESSLER/KESSLER STUDIO/Courtesy of Lii
Todd Snyder took a pause from the runway, presenting a solid collection of American-style classics in his showroom, including striped polo tops, argyle knits, corduroys, and trousers with a Hollywood waist and tapered legs, and a cozy blazer in wool herringbone. You’d never know it was knitted. Snyder started his label 15 years ago with the goal of making men’s fashion affordable, approachable, and with problem solving in mind. He’s still doing that. And one result is that tailoring is his No. 1 category. The company makes a great suit for around $1,000.
From left: Photo: Courtesy of Todd SnyderPhoto: Courtesy of Todd Snyder
From top: Photo: Courtesy of Todd SnyderPhoto: Courtesy of Todd Snyder