Of the current crop of Fashion East designers who held static presentations Saturday, both Caitlin Price and Jenna Young, designer of This is the Uniform, channelled a fresh, youthful spirit, each harking back to their pasts.
For a second season, Price riffed on streetwear shapes in luxurious fabrics: tracksuits in pastel satin with pleats in lieu of sporty stripes, and floor-sweeping skirts that tied at the waist like boxer trunks. The designer referenced the rituals of dressing up to go out, including for her drum n' bass nights in the late Nineties.
Young also sought to interpret "the uniform of the tracksuit, the uniform of the streets," that she saw growing up in Blackpool, a seaside town in northern England. The designer set up a tableau of models picking at fast food or playing table tennis while wearing silk halter-neck tennis dresses, silk cotton denim jackets and string vests crafted from rouleau piping.
Irish designer Richard Malone said he'd also drawn on his upbringing, specifically "the codes that permeate working class Irish culture." His sculpted shapes included an orange skirt with stiff pleats that recalled store uniforms, while the standouts were dresses in a heavy-duty, textured white fabric crimped into stiff ruffles.
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