Let other designers talk about elevating their offerings; ascension was the name of the game at Who Decides War. By this Ev Bravado and Téla D’Amore meant upping the quality of their work (they produced in house rather than relying on contractors) and expanding their range. The angels and wings that adorned the invitation suggested a spiritual reading of the term. And it so happened that the designers showed in the Hall des Lumières, a former bank, where models climbed a steep flight of stairs to emerge onto the catwalk where they paraded to a soundscape by Cash Cobain with live accompaniment from a student orchestra. In the front row were seated rappers with millions of followers outfitted in WDW. That a brand presenting its 10th collection could have such pull is impressive.
The past few months have been particularly busy for the designers, and after their collaboration with H&M and the Jean-Michel Basquiat estate launched this summer, said D’Amore, “We went to Bordeaux and just locked ourselves up in a huge castle.” The grandeur of the surroundings set the direction of the collection. “The inspiration is the Victorian age,” said Bravado at a preview. “It’s really Victorian power dressing through our lens, through Americana codes; saying in a sense, ‘You don’t need to be from Europe to do it, you can do it here.’”
There are few things more American than jeans, a signature of the brand. Bravado explained that the commercial collection had been shown prior to the show, allowing he and D’Amore to spread their wings. Yet the pieces that Bravado was talking about felt artful rather than commercial and they were what people in the audience were wearing. More of a mix between the collections on the runway might have been interesting. The designers didn’t abandon their signature techniques, however. Alton Mason opened the proceedings in a dreamy sweater made of upcycled knits and lace which was paired with beautifully tailored pants in what looked like crepe fabric. Adding poetry to a military-inspired vest were long trailing webbing ties that looked like ribbon; adding romance to the pants it was shown with were a Victoriana ruff and draped swag. Ruffles appeared on the shoulders of a Byronic shirt; they looked a bit like wings on a pearl-colored jacket for women.
The cathedral window is WDW’s signature motif; making it dimensional was this season’s challenge. This treatment was used in men’s tailoring. Those arches, placed on the hips of a gray leather dress, looked a bit like panniers. Imagining what WDW could look like on the red carpet was one of the challenges the designers set themselves this season, and likely explains the number of women’s looks. Last season’s collection was only menswear, and that category remains the brand’s strength. The Victorian references were less literal when it came to the guys. Among the standout dresses was the finale look, a draped wedding gown with a pouf skirt in a kind of Marie Antoinette style, look 38, a draped column. The bandeau and ball skirt of painstakingly distressed denim not only had an ethereal beauty but it spoke to one of the collection’s central tenets, which was, D’Amore explained, “the whole idea that you can’t have beauty without a little bit of ruin.”
New York Fashion Week hasn’t seen much of the kind of beauty, or been exposed to the references, that WDW brings to it, because there have been so few Black designers participating. This season’s collection included a collaboration with Pelle Pelle. For Bravado, that was a real New York moment. “This is what I’ve seen growing up, and obviously I couldn’t afford it, but now I have the opportunity to collaborate. [These jackets] were huge in the late ’90s and early ’00s and worn by the likes of Dipset and Jay-Z,” said the designer. On the back of one of them was embroidered what Bravado called “our Mount Rushmore,” featuring portraits of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Barack Obama, Malcolm X, and Frederick Douglass. When looking back at headpieces from the Victorian era, D’Amore saw a similarity to durags and married the two into a lace hybrid that added a transcendent touch to the collection.
