Fashion’s current infatuation is with all things demure; not surprisingly, Elena Velez, a maker of “anti-fragile fashion,” isn’t having it—or at least not the way it’s served up on TikTok. It might be tempting to roll your eyes or raise an eyebrow when you hear that OnlyFans was one of the sponsors of the spring show and that the designer expanded her guest list, as is her prerogative, to include the Hallowed Sons Motorcycle Club, whom she met on a cigarette break outside of a bar in Brooklyn, as guests. Yet at a preview, the designer, who has burned many bridges, suggested she wanted to try to build them instead. I have “this longing and this desire to overcome this idea of being fashion’s problematic face or overcoming this feeling of being misunderstood and wanting to show the goodwill and the goodness that we’re trying to do with the brand.”
Coming from a designer who has been labeled a provocateur, the idea of approaching things from a more positive place was more than welcome, especially as it has often felt that Velez conflated strength with aggression or started from a place of defensiveness, perhaps related to class consciousness.
The personal and the political came together in a collection in which Velez grappled (sans mud) with the current political situation in the States. The idea, she explained, was “reimagining the negative stereotypes around patriotism or affiliation with, and passion and care for, a place that you call home. So we’re looking at all sorts of different allegorical female representations of national aspiration or an identity…such as Marianne from the French Revolution, or Lady Columbia, or the Statue of Liberty. But then also trying to find a way to integrate that with a more contemporary interpretation of what that girl could be—maybe she’s the cheerleader or the Miss America sort of pageant queen—and just trying to merge these two really interesting universes around womanhood and what she can symbolize to a people and to a place.”
The collection takes its title, La Pucelle (The Maiden), from the pen name of Joan of Arc: Heroine, Catholic martyr, and proto-feminist, who became a symbol of France, and freedom, after the revolution. Joan might as well be a patron saint of fashion/pop culture as well; The Smiths sing about her, and she has recently returned to the catwalk care of Dilara Findikoglu and Balenciaga’s Demna. The armor is only part of her appeal; the idea of a strong, independent woman is, even in 2024, provocative. (It’s ironic that the presidential debate took place hours after Velez’s show.)
The show opened not with a strong woman, but one of the most potent symbols of America: the cowboy. This one was willowy, sported a cross on his ten-gallon hat, and prize rosettes on his shoulders. Role reversal? A football reference, in the form of a strapless, slit dress made of an upcycled jersey followed. Later on a sports pennant was repurposed into a top that read “cannon fodder.” Sacrifice comes in many packages, the appearance of a tiara pageant queen, makeup running, wearing a sash that said “option released” read like an indictment of beauty standards.
Although the show notes admonished the reader to “answer this call to muster behind the bare-breasted and battle scarred valkyrie in her many modern forms,” there were no bare breasts, and no Instagram-offending nipples-on view. The only runway reference to OnlyFans was a line on the back of a T-shirt with a corset printed on the front. Speaking of which, what convinced this editor that Velez had mostly returned to form, was comparing the runway clothes to the arrival of a guest in a boned and laced look from last season’s irksome salon “show” looking like cosplay of Godey’s Lady’s Book (a chronicle of Victorian fashion).
These were not modest clothes by any means, in fact they were quite skimpy in length, and some were flimsy in appearance. A printed ribbed tank dress was unconvincing on the catwalk and it made one long for Velez’s earlier metal and canvas collections with their dramatic silhouettes. Still there was real appeal to an off-the-shoulder dress with tucks and a fitted burgundy corset jacket shown with patent leather shorts in the same color. A cotton column had tulle inserted at the empire line and a drawstring to gather it together. Considering the sponsors lineup one might have expected more s-e-x, but there was an underlying feeling of romance, maybe even of nostalgia.
Velez’s show coincided with her 30th birthday, celebrated with what promised to be an intense after-party, but backstage the designer was playing with her children while models were being photographed in the late day sun streaming through the windows, and they just looked pretty. The designer might have been talking about herself when she described her ideal woman as one “who utilizes and activates her light and her dark sides to accomplish a loftier aspirational pursuit.” Crusading is exhausting, for both sides. Sometimes it’s enough just to turn your face to the sun and just be.
