Matthew Adams Dolan’s plays on proportion have made his label one of the most eagerly awaited at New York Fashion Week. It’s not just his volumes that fascinate — last season’s take on the Camelot era Whitehouse showed he’s grappling with bigger themes around what ‘American design’ means, exactly. This season was no different, pulling from various glorious (and not so glorious) eras of American fashion, into one, cohesive, and somewhat utilitarian whole.
Firstly, the color palette — black, blue, neon, and seemingly everything in between, but always worn in monotone looks that projected a kind of futuristic power. Broad, soft shoulders gave way to fuller sleeves on powerfully tailored jackets, cinched at the waist. Pants were loose in a workwear kind of way, replete with utility belts with pockets. Denim jackets were cinched, but not with belts — Dolan had tailored a slim waist into them, the antithesis of the boxy shape one usually associates him with, redolent of the New Look. Also particularly fetching were looks in neon pinks and yellow, the drama of which suggest a high-vis jacket given a Cinderella makeover. Dolan has a talent for combining the wearable and the high concept, whether it be through unexpected color or tailoring reminiscent of couture. His closing look was unexpected — what appeared to be a denim skating skirt, expect the volume was given by oversize pockets, worn under a pouf-sleeved denim jacket. It was fitting end to a show that combined references from at least the last seven decades. Dolan is most definitely what New York’s future looks like, in fashion at least.
