In a cab on the way downtown after the Public School show, one female fashion editor remarked that, were she a man (albeit a tall, slim one), the brand would serve as her daily uniform. Looking at Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne’s sophomore outing after last season’s reboot, it’s easy to see why. Sure, it’s built on juxtaposition that’s become somewhat formulaic among New York designers—traditional tailoring mixed with athletic elements—but what Public School has that many others don’t is a restrained sense of urban cool. Rendered in the cityslicker palette of black, gray, white, and, especially, navy, the collection had a crisp, almost architectural clarity.
“Fall was a homecoming,” said Chow at their headquarters in the Garment District a few days prior. “This season is about refining.”
“We talk about this uniform, the new New York uniform,” added Osborne. “What is that going to look like? And that’s what this season is about.”
If fall was more varied and a touch showier (appropriate for a big comeback), spring has a cut-to-the-bone sharpness of vision. Minimal isn’t quite the right word, but there was a clarity in the collection’s simplicity and a foot-on-the-brake sense of control. Once known as purveyors of louche streetwear, the designers have made tailoring a more central proposition, with this season centered around gently exaggerated jackets, with padded, slightly articulated shoulders that pushed the silhouette just enough to be both distinct and grounded in reality. Take a double-breasted blazer stripped of its sleeves and shown over a double-layered T-shirt, or a draped, oversized suit jacket paired with slick, straight-cut leather pants. Later it arrived in nubby textured wool—almost like terrycloth, Chow said—cut asymmetrically and pulled taut across the body. They even tinkered with the ever-formal three-piece suit, in their way, here cut with substantial drape and flow, its jacket’s cuffs turned up slightly and worn over a low-cut knit tee.
During the preview, the designers mentioned modularity as a key element, as well as the tension between two opposing forces—natural fibers paired with synthetics (think: cotton and cupro), woven pieces paired with knits, or those sportier elements paired with more classic sartorial garments. They dropped in signatures like leather jackets (used sparingly yet impactful—it is spring after all).
They talked about dressing for the elements. Coming out of a hot, rainy summer, there was a lightness to certain garments that was certainly functional and appealing: a mushroom-colored robe coat with droplet-like beading at the shoulder, a slinky striped shirt with an elasticated hem, or a hooded nylon anorak peeking out from one of those beefy blazers were stand-outs. If the collection had a drawback, it could be that the dark palette and fine-tuned modularity sometimes read as repetitive on the runway. But in the bright light of their studio days before, the small details were more apparent. It takes a certain amount of confidence to have such a clear-eyed, almost obsessive, message—that broad-shouldered jacket, those full-cut trousers, again and again—and to stand behind it. But isn’t that what a uniform is all about?
