Proenza Schouler

NEW YORK, February 7, 2007
By Nicole Phelps
Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough are fashion's early adopters. The Alaïa references that have been spotted on the runways this week? So last season. They've moved away from their Spring outing's essentially spare sensibility and rediscovered the interest in surface decoration that informed some of their best collections. Coats, for starters, were a veritable patchwork of materials, with wool bodies, popcorn-knit sleeves, and fur collars or fur-lined hoods. Some necklines were studded with patinaed crystals. Minimalists may find the overall effect a bit much, but the workmanship was beyond question.

Paul Poiret, the twentieth-century innovator whose many hallmarks included East Asian motifs, and whose oeuvre will go on display at the Costume Institute come May, could've been one of the show's touchstones. His influence was there in cocooning kimono jackets, the standout of which came in white-and-black fur-trimmed jacquard. And you could see it in the vintage-y twenties dresses dripping in jet. Other embellishments had a more modern dimension. Intricate pleats zigzagged up and down the fronts of chiffon dresses, or crisscrossed at the bodice in a way that resembled the bustier shapes for which this duo is loved. Radzimir dresses in luscious jewel tones were treated similarly.

If these rarefied clothes have a small target audience, that's sort of the point—especially now that the boys have proved they can reach a large Target audience any time they want with the instant success of their recent high-low collaboration. Exquisite details? Cheap chic? These two talents excel at both.

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