“It’s my fifth show, it’s time to remind people [I’m] just a little bit punk,” said Alix Higgins just before the start of his resort 2027 runway show. Or maybe punk isn’t the right word, he admitted. While the brand is no longer a fledgling passion project—it’s matured over the course of his shows—his confidence to reject linear narratives is what helps him retain his indie designer attitude. Tonight’s ambiance only enforced that. Just take the plastic lawn chairs aligned neatly in his friend’s China Heights Gallery: “It’s not like the grandeur of the Opera House,” he quipped.
Sure, it’s still commercial in the most literal sense. Higgins noted that there are very few showpieces that won’t go into production, but the collection zigged and zagged across his eccentric motifs and “upcycling” techniques, leading you from a digital print of a 16th-century French clock to an asymmetric camouflage T-shirt. “The upcycling kind of makes me question, ‘What if this polo shirt is Alix Higgins,’ or, ‘What if this Pikachu T-shirt is Alix Higgins?’” he questioned. “What are the limits of my brand in that way?”
Thankfully, he hasn’t found the limits of his most charming signature: the graphic slogan. “This is my show,” “I hope it was worth it :),” and “agnostics” floated by on various styles. Plenty of the audience were sporting similar pieces from previous seasons, too.
As for how it feels as an independent designer to have the perpetual opportunity to start anew? “It was quite freeing, you know?” said Higgins. “When you’re an independent designer like me, and my work is so much about culture, time, and my emotions, it can be anything.” Sitting in that plastic lawn chair, it’s understandable how being a beloved outsider might be the better place to be.
