The LVMH Prize Finalists Behind the NYC Label Commission Have Some Eclectic Ideas About Office Attire
Commission designers Jin Kay, Dylan Cao, and Huy Luong were keeping a secret when I visited them in their Lower East Side showroom. The trio, who graduated from Parsons and launched their label a year and a half ago, had been shortlisted for the LVMH Prize—but at the time of our appointment, they kept mum. The acknowledgement from the French luxury goods company is well warranted. The designers have built a collection with unmistakable signatures, including double cuffs, slim square-neck dresses, and sleek belted trousers.
Their perennial inspiration is their mothers, each pursuing a different career in Southeast Asia in the late ’80s and early ’90s: a doctor, an HR manager, and a maître d and performer at her family’s restaurant. Together, it paints a complex picture of what it looks like to be a woman in the workforce: in need of clothing that telegraphs power and trust without sacrificing glamour. The designers hit these notes easily in their fall 2020 collection, which imagines a more vivid and stylish version of their mothers’ work clothes.
Shirting is a core of the brand, and their camp collar pinstripes have a relaxed professionalism about them. Ditto their double-waist herringbone pants, languid faux leather trenches, and pleated skirts in a moody rose print that nods to traditional Vietnamese and Korean packaging. Any modern woman would be thrilled to walk through her office in the trio’s black skirt suit with a hand-made yellow corsage, or their fluttering violet dress. Every inch of their garments is mindfully considered, from the crossover neck of a blouse that can hang seductively limp to the twisted sleeves of a blazer that reveal, when unbuttoned, a flash of a colorful silk shirt.
The brand’s thoughtfulness doesn’t come at the expense of fun. For fall, they have cut their popular square-neck dress in a chocolate faux fur. Will a working woman wear that? Maybe the jacket version is more practical, but you have to admit that even the strictest among us consider really turning it out from time to time. For a subtler take, there are brushed cashmere sweaters with removable partner sweaters that wrap around the shoulders, and a white leopard-print-dress-and-legging combo. In a new development, the Commission designers are launching their first pair of jeans, a high-rise style with the brand’s signature fanny-pack-inspired curved waist in white and a medium wash.
Photo: Courtesy of Commission1/35
Photo: Courtesy of Commission2/35