A year into her brand steeped in tales of witchcraft and the feminine divine, Colleen Allen has become one of those New York fashion IYKYK cases, but after dressing Charli XCX on tour and joining Moda Operandi’s “Most Exciting Designers to Know” this week, others are likely to fall under her spell.
Allen first gained her powers at Calvin Klein before heading up menswear for the The Row, both go-tos for minimal tailoring, which she perfumes with the timeworn quality of things you’d uncover at a Victorian estate sale. Allen’s focus on underwear, another link to Klein, adds potency to the brew.
Of course, hers aren’t your run-of-the-mill briefs. They’re crinoline bustle panties. Peeking out from the backside of a velvety hourglass frock coat in this season’s lookbook, they encapsulate “the spirit of irreverence” Allen said she was after.
The designer looked to sage women who have weathered political unrest because of that spirit, leading her to performance artist Kembra Pfahler, who modeled in a few of the images. “She covers her body in paint and does these photo prints of her butt,” Allen explained. It’s this reference to Yves Klein who used women’s bodies as his brushes. She’s sort of reclaiming that.”
Thinking about “embodiment,” colors were meant to embody characters in this story. Alongside another one of those fabulous coats in Yves Klein blue, Allen cast celery green, (“beautiful, but gross”) and royal purple (“divisive”) for fleece maxiskirts and hooded tops with her signature hook-and-eye closures. Ivory, meanwhile, played the supporting role for cotton nightgowns, silky bias slips and, touching on spring’s bloomer trend, a pair accented with antique lace.
If these weren’t exactly page turners, Allen hit a climax with a spiraling black blazer dress styled chicly over lean trousers. Sheer gowns with wisps of beaded fringe at the shoulders and skeletal ruching around the rib cage were also knockouts. These told a more beautifully sinister tale Allen should continue to write.
