It’s finally happening! Since bringing their Vaquera show to Paris three years ago with the help of Dover Street Market, Bryn Taubensee and Patric DiCaprio have been talking about moving their whole operation to the City of Light, the idea being that a relocation would make production easier and cut down on their cost of living. Now, they’re actually doing it: the plane tickets have been purchased for mid-June, and though they haven’t yet found a place to live, they feel sure it’ll all fall into place. Committing is the hardest part.
Maybe because of their soon-to-be future address, there was a hint of the French bourgeois in their fall collection. It was tongue in cheek, no doubt, but it was there just the same in the pillbox hats with the expressive bows, the oversize pearl ropes, the sheer black hose and pumps, and the faux fur chubbie and coat. When they eventually settle down here they may discover that Parisians aren’t all that different from New Yorkers—we all buy our basics at Uniqlo—but until then it’s hypothetical. And for the edgy, alternative crowd that Vaquera attracts, there’s nothing more contrarian than playing it would-be prim and proper.
Except, of course, it wasn’t all that prim and proper. A lot of the looks were built on shoulder-padded bodysuits in black or nude, which called to mind circa-2000s Martin Margiela. Cut high on the legs, they exposed jutting hip bones over low-slung jeans, some featuring Andy Warhol’s print of Marilyn Monroe, which were made in collaboration with the Andy Warhol Foundation. Giant satin brassieres-turned-tops and dresses were the stars of other looks, one enormous strap worn over a shoulder and the other falling toward the floor. That’s the New York in them shining through.
In the recent past, you saw bras printed on T-shirts from Vaquera, but their goal this season was to “make commercial garments that we feel excited about and not just things that feel like compromises,” DiCaprio said. For my money, the pieces that struck an ideal balance between irreverence and wearability, the ones with the most commercial promise, were the jackets, from an oversize moto to a double-breasted coatdress complete with logo sleeve tag to a trench painted white, another Margiela-like effect. DiCaprio is placing his bet on the extroverted pillbox. “It’s not going to be $10,000," he said. “The fan who doesn’t have a lot of spending power can get a lot of look.”
