When is a fashion show not a fashion show? When the action is taking place elsewhere.
On Tuesday, guests gathered at a small theater in Paris expecting to see Telfar Clemens’ first show at Paris Fashion Week in seven years. But when the lights went down, it became clear the collection was actually bowing in New York, with a runway event broadcast via livestream.
Across the ocean at One Hanson Place in downtown Brooklyn, Clemens simultaneously staged a fun fashion event made up of multiple activations. The first was the introduction of the designer’s Bag Redemption program, where customers can exchange their existing Telfar bags, no matter how old or worn, and redeem them toward a new one or wardrobe piece.
His show venue also served as the location of the brand’s largest sample sale, held in the middle of One Hanson Place and surrounded by runway aisles on each side, with more than 30,000 garments and bags at prices up to 90 percent off. The sale opened to the public immediately after the virtual Paris slash physical New York runway show, with hundreds of customers wrapped down and around the block and runs through Sunday.
“So, you know the first two letters of sample sale are S and S, but at Telfar, we’re always ahead so right now you’re getting Telfar SS27,” a voice boomed on the mic before the New York designer’s runway show kicked off.
“We started working on the collection and were making the clothes, but we initially had no plan to show it. We needed to do a sample sale, so we wrapped it all in. Paris is where the home of fashion is, at least by exclusion of all the other places. In Paris, it’s a serious deal, serious, so it was fun to play with that. We’re in a new place with the brand right now, it’s kind of like a rebirth,” Clemens told WWD.
The designer has always been an innovator in his show formats, marketing messaging and the way he designs his genderless fashions, and here he pushed that message in new directions.
On the runway, the designer upped his ante with strong, elevated silk jacquard button ups with raw-cut edges, which played into the collection’s introduction of tailoring — a high point of the lineup — paired with oversize or funnel neck shirtdresses and backless button halters.
“The suits are reversible; the linings match the silks that are on the dress shirts, so it goes from formalwear into this denim exploration of all colored denim, which is a take on all the different pieces that we have made in denim, like the three-ply jeans that are shorts, capris and pants. Now there’s a fourth layer, and it connects back to our 2010 collection — it’s a full-circle moment,” Clemens said.
He also evolved his mix of high street, as seen in cotton and rib basics in new garment-dyed snake and leopard prints made from dragging wild skins across office scanners and manipulating the prints with camouflage effect and Telfar logos, with hints of early 2000s nostalgia through sexy layered minidresses, fitted shirts and draped skirts with matching leggings and boots.
He sent out a deconstructed “Skew-T”; embellished Orchard Street bombers and new worn-in sweats with ribbed details inspired by moto jackets; new takes on his signature Infinity looped tank tops, here with chain embellishments; cashmere layers, and even a floor-length wool blanket coat that alluded to varsity jackets with its cracked leather sleeves.
Marking his new chapter, Clemens introduced a strong selection of new handbags: the faux fur foxtail bag, a scrunch style that serves as a “grown-up version of our plastic bag,” Clemens said, and a Triangle bag that’s slated to release next year.
“Who is this show for? That was a big reason of not — we took a break from so many of the fashion weeks because it felt performative and wasn’t for people we actually wanted the shows to be for. The people who actually buy our clothes and that resonate with us. This whole trick between having Paris Fashion Week that they can see, but we’re not present there, and having a New York show in the public that they don’t know about — I hope they saw it though,” Clemens said.
“I’ve been lying to the press for a day, and I don’t lie at all. My friends have been texting me, ‘Are you coming? When are you getting here?’ But I’ve been keeping it really quiet until the news broke that the show was happening,” the designer added. “It’s really for Brooklyn; it’s great that Paris got to see it too, and I hope the rest of the world got to see it at the same time.”
