Following their exit from DKNY, Maxwell Osborne and Dao-Yi Chow of Public School have announced their plan to reclaim their New York Fashion Week time-slot, despite an earlier announcement they were leaving the calendar altogether. Traditionally, the pair would show their collection on February 12th at 11:00 in the morning. However, in April this year they announced Public School would move to something closer to the see-now-buy-now model. Their DKNY collections would continue abiding by the traditional fashion week calendar.
Having both collections show in New York within days of each-other, they rationalised, blurred the divide between the projects. It was also hugely emotionally taxing: “One of the reasons we moved Public School off calendar is because at the end of a show it’s emotional,” Osbourne explained to Vogue. “You put a lot of effort into it, and to do it again within a couple of days and be emotional again, it’s a lot.”
So, why the change of heart, and the return to fashion week? Now they’re not at DKNY, the problem of overcrowding is solved. “The last show we did we had decided to move Public School off calendar so we could focus on doing one show during Fashion Week. The hardest thing was being in one place and having to think about the other place,” Chow said. “I remember being backstage at a Public School show and one of our head designers from DKNY was there shooting backstage, and I was like, ‘where are we right now?'”
The pair called the February morning presentation, “a slot we’ve always loved,” so we are very happy to welcome them home.
Credits
Text Isabelle Hellyer
Image courtesy BFA