You know the Wall Street area as a seat of power and a place of protest; now it also holds magic. In an unremarkable building, up three flights of stairs, Sophie Andes-Gascon and Claire McKinney have established a workshop, a home away from home, where photographs are taped to walls and their designs hang from nails in a row, sort of like Amish chairs.
In May, the pair transformed their space into a pop-up store, converting a storage closet into a changing room. “It was just an incredible experience,” said McKinney. “We made and sold over 200 original unique pieces; just things that were sort of sketches turned into ideas. It felt like this sort of clown car thing where all these things were popping out of different areas and it worked for us. It made our little world feel a little bit bigger for a bit.” It also was the starting point for the brand’s dreamiest collection yet.
Counterintuitive as it may seem, it was the designers’ use of structure that allowed the fantasy elements to soar. The cookie-cutter shift dress was added to SC103’s repertoire, offered in a gilded linen and multi-fabric versions. It’s neat, efficient, and pretty, sort of Claire McCardellish in concept.
The decision to work with sloper (basic) patterns seems to have been influenced both by the fact that McKinney is teaching an intro to fashion class and “revisiting all those ideas” and Andes-Gascon’s past experience working with Susan Cianciolo. “I would go in there and she would have a little kimono pattern and a little dress pattern, and that’s what we would cut and sew, and then she would take it from there,” her protege recalled.
“I think it felt like a risk in a way, following rules actually seemed more of a challenge and an interesting way,” McKinney noted. It was a boon, effectively controlling the cheery “chaos” of the decorations such as florets and gothic lettering. Metaphorically, it created a sandbox in which the duo could build castles. Among the pieces in the new offering was a striped, beautifully mitred piece that looked something like a child’s sailor’s suit you might see in a Prendergast painting of children in a park.
Without skewing young, this collection was full of play and pageantry. The screen printed and otherwise embellished tights worn with many of the looks added the hint of a medieval feeling; wide, multimedia belts brought a peacocky element. This aspect of the collection related to how the designers spent their summers. McKinney was in Oregon at the Country Fair (which started as a Renaissance one), and Andes-Gascon was in Brazil at the time of the Parintins Festival (at which her parents met). A series of charming collage dresses was made using printed dishcloths the latter brought back. What’s exciting about the pageantry aspect of the garments, said Andes-Gascon, is that “there’s this shiny, really beautiful veneer to everything, and then you go up close and you realize that everything’s glued and stuck together.” A reminder, perhaps, that dreams can be manifested.
Many pieces in this utterly enchanting collection really did look like children’s book drawings come to life. And there was a sense that if you listened really closely in the silence of the atelier, you could feel the beat of a drum or the clarion call of a horn inviting you to join the dance. Yet the defining characteristic of this season’s pieces was a freedom of expression. The success of the pop-up gave the designers the confidence to return to the intuitive way of working that they started with, and to follow their joy. “Seeing the power of what we did was so inspiring for us,” Andes-Gascon said. “Sitting down at the sewing machine and making those pieces and then seeing that it translated. It was just insane.”
