Perhaps more than ever, tonight’s VFiles show pushed fashion decency to its very limit, then went further. In front of an adoring, rambunctious crowd of colorfully attired demimonde-dwellers bobbing to dubstep, courtesy of DJ A-Trak, not to mention all who watched on Periscope and tweeted furiously, five young designers or collectives took the runway with abandon. They were the chosen ones, as selected online by an international voting public. “We’re breaking stereotypes,” said founder Julie-Anne Quay backstage. “These brave kids, who are 22 and under, represent the next generation of tastemakers, the new youth culture."
The most compelling of the bunch, conceptually speaking, was Feng Chen Wang. Born in Beijing and fresh out of fashion college in Britain, she described the very somber basis for her collection, learning of her father’s cancer diagnosis last year and taking a deep interest in the process of recovery, even observing the surgery firsthand in the operating room. As bleak as it sounds, and rather contrary to her chirpy demeanor,
she made the most of the bad situation, crafting clothes bursting with outsized organ shapes and zippers evoking incisions. Some models wore blood bags that dripped a black liquid (not blood) into plastic tubes spelling out the words Love and Life.
David Ferreira, based in London, brought together his favorite film, Orlando, and Empress Dowager Cixi of nineteenth-century China. As it happened, some of the pieces ended up looking remarkably similar to Rihanna’s yellow stunner, by Guo Pei, at this year’s Met Gala. (Incidentally, Rihanna has sported previous VFiles designers to various events.) Ferreira said he combined elements of European couture with historical Chinese dress. He mentioned foot-binding, but it was surely only coincidence that one model tumbled twice, ripping off her shoes each time and continuing barefoot to thunderous applause.
and the rebellious spirit of today’s pop stars.
The New York trio Moses Gauntlett Cheng was the most trans-centric of the group, mixing and matching assorted genders and identities that, along with a self-assured sashay, recalled the ’80s drag balls from the film Paris Is Burning. Japanese designer—and graduate of both Central Saint Martins and Parsons—Kozaburo Akasaka also sought inspiration from an earlier decade, but his was conjured from the other side of the planet, Tokyo. His pieces were hand-stitched and patched together from scraps of denim, leather, and other assorted tatters, complete with cowboy boots. One imagines his post-apocalyptic, Wild West vision was all the rage in his hometown at the end of the last millennium. When the grand finale took place—a parade of all the models in all the looks—the effect was nothing short of Fellini-esque. And get this: Most of it either already is or will soon be available to buy online. It really is a new day.
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