Finding perfection in imperfection is not how anyone would’ve described Jason Wu’s vibe in the Before Times, but a pandemic changes things. “COVID makes you work differently,” he said at his show today. “It felt like we were back in start up mode again, getting our hands dirty.” That idea has become something of a refrain this week; if there’s a fashion upside to the last 18 months, it’s that they’ve reconnected some designers with process: with the act of making clothes, not the pursuit, say, of Instagram likes.
Wu is one of those designers. He hooked up with Cara Marie Piazza, a fabric artist who uses natural dyes, to develop prints, sometimes applying color with a sponge and other times using the fabric bundling technique. It was new to me, so I looked it up. In essence: You place real flowers on a piece of fabric, roll it up, and the flowers imprint themselves on the material. The effects are blurry and imprecise, made all the more so by the soft, washed fabrics he chose. Wu described them as impressionistic.
This signature collection is still devoted to dressy, special occasion fare, rather than sportswear, but the sensibility has evolved since it was last on the runway circa February 2020. The hand-rendered details and the “individual and intimate” results feel attuned to the ways that shoppers have changed during the pandemic, too. Formal, but still relaxed isn’t an easy combination to achieve, and it’s new for Wu, but he did it here.
As for the lush Emma Thompson-designed flower installations on his runway? Much of it will go to Pratt, where Wu will give workshops on natural dyeing techniques for students. “It’s a full circle,” Wu said. That sounds right. Nice developments, all around.
