About a week ago, when the Proenza Schouler Spring 2013 show invite arrived, we were struck by its odd, quasi-digital look. With its rounded font and high-contrast blue-on-white color scheme, it called to mind the kind of low-fi imagery one might see flashing across a late-night TV screen. You know, when there's nothing on but infomercials. Quite frankly, it seemed a little cold for a line that's always had one eye on artisanal craft.
On Wednesday evening, though, when the actual show finally rolled around, that strange invite imagery suddenly made sense. For this was a collection about the information age, and, more precisely, the constant influx of pixelated imagery that bombards us on a second-by-second basis.
Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough called it "randomness," but there was nothing random going on here. Sure, there was a wild array of texture and pattern — colorblocked python skins, collaged photo prints, reflective leathers, perforated skins, primary colors — but it was all harnessed in by sharp, boxy silhouettes and carefully appointed lines. Skirts covered in graphic panels of texture were cut in precise A-line shapes, while chiffon dresses emblazoned in swirling prints were carefully fit to hug the body.
And as for the designers' signature use of traditional craft? Well, that was there too. It came in the form of geometric crochet, paneled patchwork, and gorgeous embellishment. The series of dresses that closed the show, with their perfect rows of grommets and studs that glistened like digitized sequins, were especially entrancing.
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