Collina Strada Opens New York Fashion Week With Animal Transformations

What’s with the world of animals and fashion? Since humans started wearing skin, the two are interconnected, flora and fauna have been used as a source of creativity, comfort, exploitation and politics. The results are sometimes beautiful, sometimes horrifying, sometimes controversial. (Two weeks ago, during a couture show in Paris, Schiaparelli set off a firestorm when designer Daniel Roseberry wore a living lion’s head on a dress that some thought was The Great White Hunter.) But on Friday, as the New York show kicked off, Collina Strada unveiled a collection that shows that the relationship can be something completely different.

Exciting! Of a very absurd kind.

Titled Please Don’t Eat My Friends and held at the still-under-construction House of Cannabis in SoHo, it was a fine ride, featuring many friend (yes) designer Hillary Taymours, of all ages, sizes and physical abilities, pacing the runway across a room painted an earthy green.

Or only partially running. The rest of the time they crawl, jump, prance, sniff onlookers and otherwise succumb to their inner animal, all while wearing deer ears, pig snouts, dog heads, toucan beaks and other prosthetics of the creature’s features. by make-up artist Isamaya Ffrench.

Along with the creature accessories come white Vans with hoof prints on top, a ponytail made from recycled yarn skeins, a print that looks like feathers and a meadow of wildflowers, and shoulder appendages that resemble horns. The color scheme is like My Little Pony on acid. The soundtrack involves barking and roaring.

Kathleen Engman, mother of Collinas art director Charlie Engman, wore a sequined layered bed jacket over a bodice over a tee with a long, printed leg skirt that looked as if Collina’s classic cargo pants had been seamed (in a sort of DIY jean skirt) and spiked. lizard on his bald head. One of the models brought Powie, Ms. Taymour, was under one sleeve and wore a matching Powie print t-shirt over a light-sleeved shirt, like a hipper version of a breastplate. In the end, actor Tommy Dorfman appeared as the bride with bunny ears and a white satin slip dress, rocking back and forth.

In essence, wrote Ms. Taymour in his event notes, was to underscore the ideas that are here together.

He’s been trading anthropomorphism for animorphism for a while now: He built his brand on an environmentally responsible foundation, using mostly biodegradable, dead stock, organic or recycled materials. In early 2021, during the Covid-19 pandemic, he released a videos teamed up with Animorphs artist David Mattingly who transformed his models into their wilder selves. But instead of denouncing or preaching her position, Ms. Taymour has made his expression almost radically laughable, so it’s impossible not to smile. (He once made a video game, Hill Land, which features a character running across a collapsing baguette bridge. Baguette bridge!)

She’s like Mary Poppins about sustainability, except that instead of sugar, she doses everyone with a spoonful of something a little more mind-altering.

Once upon a time, all of this put Ms. Taymour on the fringes of fashion week, the freak of the avocado set incorporates his principles into cargo pants. Gradually, however, the rest of the world has turned to his point of view. Her work was included in the Mets In America: A Lexicon of Fashion exhibition, and Kim Petras wore the Collina Strada to the Met Gala in September 2021. In addition to Vans, Ms. Taymour has collaborated with Levis and Melissa, a Brazilian shoe company; he has also been considered for the creative director role of a major brand.

In part, this is because she does all of the above in increasingly polished dress form, plundering the romance of history (trains and peplums and bloomers and capes) and filtering it through the lens of a hipster thrift store. Technically and philosophically, he knows what he’s doing.

Buried amid this season’s barnyard chaos are a punchy plaid trench with narrow little shoulders, a bias-cut gown in bronze satin with a seductively deep hood framing the spine, and a satin trouser suit with floral trim on the hem of the jacket. and pants. They’ll bring character and a good-natured bit of morality (pun intended) to any boardroom or cocktail guest. As it read on one of the T-shirts: Woof.