Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez’s opening salvo for fall 2024? A peacoat, its fabrication and the bands that circled the sleeves distinguishing it from standard issue military surplus. This Proenza Schouler collection put the quiet in quiet luxury; the designers finessed outerwear essentials, took tailoring cues from the ’90s fashion macher Helmut Lang, and stripped away anything superfluous. The cloud prints and crystal embellishments of last season, and even the new monogram logo they introduced, had been shelved.
At a studio preview they talked about the state of the world (“the wars, the division”) and the state of fashion (the obligation to adhere to an unyielding schedule, in particular). “The noise,” McCollough said. “It made us want to focus inward, focus on something a little intimate.” The jazz musician Alice Coltrane’s “Going Home” set a sort of meditative mood.
These weren’t spa clothes—a trend we saw elsewhere last season—but they were swaddling, from the generous cowls that accessorised jackets to the shawls that wrapped around bare shoulders and pinned at the mid back above matching dresses that were worn as skirts. A trio of attractive fine knit maxi dresses in ivory, red, and soft peach draped and clung to waistlines, like sensual hugs.
In counterpoint, the tailoring was clean and sharp—note the creases down the sleeves of a white three-button jacket—but not severe. The parkas, in particular, followed Lang’s blueprint. It’s interesting to observe that Hernandez and McCollough’s search for “peace, warmth, comfort, and ease” led them to the ’90s. The internet was well on its way to infiltrating every aspect of our lives, but those were analog times compared to the relentlessness of our algorithmic present.
The temptation to cocoon in cozy shearling vests and coats, of which there were many here, is highly relatable, and the Proenza Schouler designers can’t go wrong leaning into that instinct—we all want to feel good in these increasingly bad times. The designers’ challenge moving forward will be to push out of that comfort zone.
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