The large drawing of a cheekily naked old imp at the end of the catwalk signposted one of the inspirations for Steven Cox and Daniel Silver s latest Duckie Brown collection: the story of the Emperor s new clothes. Another influence they cited backstage was pop-up books. Together these two notions go a long way toward explaining the playfulness of both the clothes and the presentation: the polka dots, the primary colors, the goofy proportions, the deluge of bubbles at the finale. But the real source of the kidult campiness that is Duckie s unique selling point in New York lies in the third inspiration they listed: themselves. According to Cox and Silver, they started with their own personalities when they designed this collection. And what shiny, happy people they must be to give their clothes such a sheen.
The show opener, a glazed Crombie, was the prelude to, among other glittering prizes, a Lurex sweatpant, a black sequined sweatshirt, and a matching top and pant in "reversible shiny seaweed green." Tucked away in odd corners of jackets and trousers, meanwhile, were little flourishes of hand-embroidery and -beading: a Lesage zebra on a pair of trousers, a beaded turtle on a shirt, stick men on the back of jackets. The final "evening" jacket featured a clutch of big, beaded medals across its chest. Trousers were distinguished by a "cummerback," a half-cummerbund stitched to the waistband.
Fun aside, Cox and Silver never stopped their serious experiments with novel cuts. Theirs is an emperor who will never go naked.
