This story originally appeared in i-D’s The Ultra! Issue, no. 369, Fall 2022. Order your copy here.
On the morning of May 7th 2019, Patric DiCaprio – Vaquera’s founding designer – was mopping the floor at a branch of Beacon’s Closet, the vintage store beloved by New York’s fashion fans, But only hours before, he’d been among the very same stars those fans might look up to. On May 6th, he’d attended the Gucci-hosted afterparty for the Met Gala, held in honour of the opening of Camp: Notes on Fashion, the Costume Institute exhibition in which his label’s iconic Tiffany dress – a blown-up riff on the jewellery giant’s iconic robin egg-hued pouch – featured. This prompted a curious realisation: he was living out his very own Cinderella story. “One moment I was with all these celebrities and people being like, ‘You’ve made it! You’re in the show!’,” he recalls, “and the next, I was a penniless shop girl again.”
As theatrical as it may sound, the contrast it points to – between one fantasy-like reality, and another that’s anything but – is a key feature of what has propelled Vaquera’s story from buzzed-about brand to a bona fide success. It’s a story that reads like a fashion fairytale.
Founded by Patric as an art project in 2013 – with current co-creative director Bryn Taubensee joining in 2015, along with David Moses and Claire Sullivan, who have both since exited – Vaquera’s genesis was in part a response to the sense of disillusionment Patric experienced upon arriving in New York. “New York was framed as this city of transplants and transforming yourself, of finding your people, your great love,” he says.
It was this fantasy that drew him to the city from his native Alabama – the mythic New York of Andy Warhol’s Factory, Lou Reed and Patti Smith. “Bryn and I created this New York inside our heads that doesn’t actually exist. You think it’s going to be one way and then you get here and you’re like, ‘Wait, New York is really difficult and painful – people can be really unfriendly and it’s an easy place to feel lonely in.’ Vaquera sprung from this need to articulate the vision of New York we had in our heads before we moved here.”
But more than just a fantasy of a city, Vaquera has blossomed into a fantasy of fashion itself. Of the terms you’ll come across while reading about Vaquera, the most notable is “fashion fan-fiction”. A tactic devised to counter accusations of lacking ‘authenticity’ or ‘originality’, the term effectively allowed Vaquera to openly flaunt their nods to the visual vernaculars and other designers’ signatures which fuelled their own fashion fantasies. Some of the most memorable examples came in AW18 when the brand presented a parade of camped-up Catholic garb – think nun’s habits over tees with rhinestone dove appliqués, cropped and slashed school uniforms, a gigantic gemstone rosary – and oversized polos bearing the likeness of some of their very own ‘patron saints’: Andre Walker, Miguel Adrover, Vivienne Westwood, Martin Margiela.
“As a designer, trying to do something original and not too referential to anything that’s currently happening, or that happened in the past, can leave you feeling really stumped,” Patric says. “Initially, the idea of ‘fashion fan fiction’ was a way to alleviate ourselves of that worry, and to admit to ourselves and everyone else that we were referencing things. To show that you could do that and not feel guilty.”
It is worth underscoring that discussing Vaquera’s work in terms of ‘fantasy’ and ‘fiction’ is not to say it is unconcerned with reality. Rather, it’s committed to manifesting realities that are more exciting than the ones we typically occupy. To some, “a world where you can have a huge leopard scrunchie around your neck, and you’re in platform Vans, stomping along to a pop song mixed with a country song and an EDM track” – as Emma Wyman, the brand’s stylist of seven years, puts it – may seem fanciful. For Vaquera, and those within its orbit, however, bringing that vision to life is simply an honest, earnest attempt to fulfil the wishes of “people who want to transform themselves,” Bryn says. “People who are eager to subvert fashion norms,” adds Laura Spence, Vaquera’s current senior designer.
Granted, Vaquera’s unabashed eccentricity does make defining its spirit taxing. For Emma, it’s the integrity of its founders, the fact that they’ve “been intrinsically who they are from day one and have followed their own path”, while for Born – Vaquera’s longstanding muse and fixture of the label’s runway shows – it’s about “playing dress up in your grandma’s closet and wearing it to the club. It’s the girl next door who has a duct tape wallet and cute knick-knacks from the arcade.”
While there may be as many responses to the question of spirit-definition as the number of Vaquera fans you ask, one thing that none will contest is that the brand is a product of the network of people around it. From Emma and Born to Laura and Walter Pearce – the casting director responsible for the Vaquera walk: a blink-and-you’ve-missed-it stomp that continues to generate no end of memes – they all play indispensable roles in building the cadavre exquis that eventually takes to the runway. “Our business has always been like this, largely because it started as a passion project,” Bryn says. “And there’s the fact that there were four of us initially, figuring it out as we went. There’s a quality to Vaquera that’s very amorphous. I think it will always be like that to an extent.”
“That’s what makes trust so important,” Patric adds. “We’re in here making the collection, and then we trust Emma to help us put it together, and Walter to get the models to really carry it. That trust goes all the way to the customers who then continue the story by wearing the clothes on the streets.”
“One moment I was with all these celebrities and people being like, ‘You’ve made it!’ and the next, I was a penniless shop girl again.” Patric DiCaprio
It would be remiss to recount Vaquera’s tale without mentioning the brand’s fairy godfather: Adrian Joffe, President of Dover Street Market International. While the Comme des Garçons-affiliated network of concept stores had been buying the brand since 2019, it wasn’t until the brand reached what both Patric and Bryn bluntly describe as “rock bottom” in the spring of 2020 that they came to the rescue. “We had reached a point where we were ready to quit,” Patric recalls. “We’d run out of money. It was three weeks till the show and there was barely a collection.” Eager to find a solution to the young label’s woes, Justin Padgett, Vaquera’s PR and President at DLX NYC, reached out to DSM in the hopes of securing a slot
for a pared-back cocktail presentation during NYFW – one last chance at proving their mettle – but instead DSM offered up their Midtown store for a fully-fledged show.
The offer spurred an all-or-nothing charge to produce what Bryn and Patric designed as their swansong collection. A predominantly sombre parade of ruffled black tea dresses, tumbling ruched gowns, tiered camo cotton skirts and flashes of night-sky sequinned tailoring, it’s come to be seen as one of their most definitive bodies of work. “Looking at the clothes in that collection, you can see that it’s really focussed,” Emma reflects. “It was a moment for them to think about how their clothes could exist in the real world, and not just in a fashion show or a shoot.”
That didn’t go unnoticed by Adrian, who invited them to start working together under the umbrella of Dover Street Market Paris – the business’ riposte to the conventional luxury conglomerate structure. Rather than a many-strings-attached investment, DSMP operates as Vaquera’s business partner, offering sales and production support while respecting the brand’s autonomy. And, rather than the cynical sighting of a business opportunity, the arrangement is a result of Adrian’s genuine admiration. “Dover Street Market loves Vaquera,” Adrian writes via email. “Their vision, their attitude, their passion, their spirit, and their genius. They’re also such wonderful human beings who work with all their heart and soul. And remember, they support us as much as we support them. It’s not a one-way street.”
While fantasy remains Vaquera’s bedrock, their near-demise and their access to DSMP’s bank of knowledge have attuned Bryn and Patric to the commercial realities of the business they’re in. For many designers who’ve built their reputations as creative renegades, figuring out how to commercialise their vision without compromising it can trigger serious existential angst, but it’s a challenge Bryn and Patric have taken up with gusto. “It’s something we were asked a lot when we were more underground,” Bryn says. “How will we keep the spirit of Vaquera intact while we grow? Now, we definitely do spend a lot of time discussing commercial pieces – we have to sell clothing as well – but that spirit will always be at the heart of what we do.”
And leaning into commercial concerns hasn’t dulled Bryn and Patric’s desire for subversive creative proposals. Proof of that came during the label’s Paris debut, staged in February 2022. Held in a gutted hall in Dover Street Market’s recently acquired hôtel particulier in the Marais, it was an exploration of romance in all its hues of passion, lust, violence and warmth.
More than just proof of the validity of Vaquera’s vision, the show marked a full-circle moment in the fashion fan-fiction that Patric and Bryn have spent their careers writing – propelling them to become subjects of the very genre they pioneered. Rather than a compromise of spirit, it felt more like a confident step toward promising horizons, a recognition of the fact that “we need to rely less on the idea of fashion fan-fiction now,” Patric says.“We’ve done cover songs, but now we know how to write our own.”
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Credits
Photography Drew Vickers
Fashion Alastair McKimm
Hair Esther Langham at Art + Commerce using Oribe
Make-up Emi Kaneko at Bryant Artists using NARS
Photography assistance Nate Margolis and Tyler Roste
Fashion assistance Madison Matusich and Emily Jackson
Colourist Ginger Leigh Ryan
Make-up assistance Rose Grace
Executive Producer Kevin Isabelle
Production coordinator Shannon Kintner
Production assistance Sid Maurer, Holly Brennan, Sean Jones and Andres Valera
Location Treiber Farms
Casting director Samuel Ellis Scheinman for DMCASTING
Model Simona Kust at The Lions
All clothing VAQUERA