By Marie-Louise Gumuchian
(Reuters) – Designer duo Mark Badgley and James Mischka turned back to their 1980s student days for their fall 2022 collection at New York Fashion Week on Tuesday, presenting an array of elegant dresses adorned with large bows or detailed shoulders.
In a video release of their latest Badgley Mischka creations, models wore gowns with drooping sleeves. Suits sparkled with sequins.
The designers revisited their assignments undertaken as students, including at couturier Charles James’ exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, Zandra Rhodes’ exhibition at Parsons School of Design, the Costume Institute at The Met as well as dressing fashion shows for New York designers.
“We went back to when Mark and I were first in New York and we were in Parsons at art school and were enthralled by all the costume history by Charles James, by all this Cecil Beaton photographs that we were studying at the time,” Mischka told Reuters.
“We … looked at that through our 1980s lens and overscaled some of the proportions and things for the season. … That was when … people really went out all the time … and so we wanted to bring those same sort of feelings of extravagance and grand gestures to this collection.”
Dresses had plenty of bows – decorating fronts, sitting on sleeves or adorning waistlines. One jumpsuit was tied at the neck.
Some frocks came ruffled at the front, others were one-shouldered, in chiffon or decorated with flowers.
The designers were inspired by pictures taken by British society photographer Beaton for colours, using shades of tobacco, blush, scarlet, olive, midnight blue and black. Fabrics mixed luxury with comfort.
Like other labels, Badgley Mischka has enjoyed the current wave of soaring demand for high-end goods as customers splash out following lockdowns.
“It’s the pent-up desire. … We’ve been in business for 35 years and we just came off our best month ever in the history of Badgley Mischka with special-occasion clothing,” Badgley said. “Neiman Marcus is our number one … retailer and we just had … the most banner last few months, this last quarter, with them, which is so exciting and it just tells you that enough’s enough.”
(Reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Mark Porter)
