Let us remind you of autumn/winter 13’s show which involved performance artist Boychild approaching the runway like a swagger-heavy extraterrestrial before the perpetually-HBA clad A$AP Rocky closed the show. Autumn/winter 14 lacked in A$AP but gained another front row set of grills in the form of the ATL twins alongside a head-turning Brooke Candy and downtown writer/fashion freak queen Lynn Yaeger rocking her signature Clara Bow lips while Boychild once again stalked the runway. The soundtrack was made up of pitched down/pitched up, seriously distorted diva jams from Madonna to Cher, in addition to death metal and what sounded like growling dogs/raptors and other unidentifiable shrieks, with the lyric ‘10,000 screaming faggots!’ on loop, and at piercing volume proportions. Highlights included flared leather pants, multicolored weave headpieces, and a closing performance of shirtless and shoeless voguers.
First thing’s first, we appreciate very much that the soundtrack opened with a Madonna jam…
It’s Skin from the Ray of Light album – one of my favorite albums. We were trying to do this ritualistic, raw beauty thing and the song’s obviously literal and goes with that. We wanted the collection to be really high glamour, high concept with these rough textures and fabrics. Instead of doing so much graphics this season, we went with more rough fabrics like wool, embedded leathers, embedded suede and kind of playing around with this sort of Native American thing. And also Cher is a huge inspiration. We all kind of wanted to look like her, so we were like ‘Let’s do stuff that would make us look like Cher.’
There was so much personality in the show, how did you cast the models?
We wanted people that had obtrusive, raw energy to them. It’s all about personality this season. We thought females should be more prominent, I’ve been getting a lot of love from females, so I wanted to give it back. And I also think they give so much more personality on the runway. I want the pieces to pop out at people, and I don’t want it to be a thing where people are studying it. I want them to really see it and be like, ‘Okay, I get it.’
Tell us about those chained-together pants…
They’re kind of based on seditionary pants. We were talking about things in our wardrobes that we used to feel were really hot and rebellious and how normal they seemed to us. So we were like, ‘why not make seditionary jeans and wear them like they’re normal?’ The vibe’s kind of like, ‘why not throw on sweats and have on really great boots?’
Do you ever receive any outrageous requests from celebs to wear some free HBA?
I don’t really do that at all. If you’re a celebrity, you’re good to go, you have money. When I was younger and I wanted a piece, I really went for it and I saved money and I got it. These feelings shouldn’t be separate to celebrities.
You have loads of celeb fans though, is there anyone you’re surprised about, who rocks HBA?
We get a lot of athletes. And I’m like, ‘damn, is he really gonna wear that?’ They do it, they order stuff! It’s really cool.
They need to come to the show… Voguers, guys in midriffs, the whole deal!
I know, I know! They’d be like ‘Oh my God…!’
Credits
Text Alex Catarinella
Photography Martin Zähringer