“I think our clothes come alive when you see them on a person,” Fforme’s Paul Helbers said a few days before the label’s runway debut at his studio in SoHo. “I thought we needed to throw out a lineup of looks and see the movement in an intimate setting.” After two seasons showing by appointment only in gallery spaces in Manhattan, the designer was bringing us to the The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, where Lesley Mok, a “classical minimalist” percussionist, was going to provide a live soundtrack for the show. “Fforme is really for women to express themselves, I want to see them subvert our dressing; and Lesley is going to beat the hell out of her drums in a Fforme dress,” said Helbers with a devilish grin.
And she did. After some delays and a false start—when from backstage Helbers could be heard saying “Five more minutes, guys!,” which the audience found delightful—Mok walked out holding a a felt mallet in each hand, wearing one of Fforme’s signature draped tees and a black skirt, sat behind the drum set and started playing. The first model walked out in a long white jacket with an asymmetrical closure, paired with another of Fforme’s signature black draped tees and a pair of wide-legged trousers. Helbers had explained how he’d been attempting to do tailoring without doing tailoring: no interfacing, no unnecessary layers. “There’s a lot more softness in the collection,” he said. The jacket had the ease of a cardigan, with billowing volume towards the back where the elbow naturally bends, achieved by a curvilinear “reverse raglan sleeve” whose delicate curvatures seemed almost like a work of art. A black hooded leather jacket had delicately gathered cuffs which scrunched up at the elbows and had the same elegance as a balloon sleeve would on a decadent formal gown. It was a slightly shiny and malleable—but not entirely soft—leather, ready to be lived in. “We sort of know who our clients are, and I would love to do a project where in 40 years we find them and photograph them with their leather jackets to see how they’ve aged,” said Helbers. It was paired with matching leather straight-leg trousers and a stretch leather tank. There was another version in silver with a surprisingly masc energy that was only intensified by the matching shorts and black tee it was shown with. It was sort of like a boxer uniform Héctor “Macho” Camacho would’ve worn back in the ’90s.
Layering is really the name of the game at Fforme; it’s especially delightful when the layers are whisper-thin and dance around the body. A long sleeve dress with an elude neckline was deceptively simple, but when you looked closer you realized the seams were hidden underneath the sleeves, which were also cut into a sort of tulip shape with overlapping rounded pieces, and swayed to their own rhythm as the models walked. It was worn with chocolate brown trousers that were barely visible underneath the skirt, but added a different rhythm to the walk. On another look, the simple act of layering two asymmetrical tees—black over white—with a rounded hem and a little cap sleeve created an almost romantic effect, the ruffles floating around the model’s body. They were paired with a body-aware—not body-conscious—maxi skirt and simple thong sandals.
But it was in two dresses that Helbers’s talent shone brightest: one was white and sleeveless and had a delicate volume that ballooned and then gently tapered around the ankles; another was in pink hammered silk with pleating at the neckline opening into a trapeze shape with a deep scoop in the back.
This was certainly one of the most awaited shows this week, after last season’s presentation generated a lot of buzz. “I feel the hunger in New York for the level of clothes— the precision, the ease and the combination, the craftsmanship; I think it goes back to things that have happened before in New York, like Halston, Geoffrey Beene and Zoran, said Helbers. “And I think we’re bringing that back.”
