Proenza Schouler fall 2022

After 20 years in business and having caused the loss of reputations, failed retail shops and joblessness, these two have still not distilled a look...  a signature that you can look at and this is Proenza Schouler!

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“With Omicron fading, they’re looking forward to a fall season of strong tailoring and soft dresses whose sophistication is matched by a body-conscious sensuality.” Oh really? I see pear shaped silhouettes in many dresses and strong shouldered tailoring in a few jackets and basically   just a lot of clothes... most of them unflattering.

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“Can a strapless dress with volume evocative of 18th century panniers really feel effortless? Yes, if it’s in sculpted knitwear with a circular bias-cut skirt. “Some fashion genius will have to explain this to me and tell me why or when panniers were ever even imagined to be effortless or for that matter useful or utilitarian; not even Galliano thought them useful other than for spectacle.

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All I know is none of this will ever matter and none of it will ever be remembered for its beauty. 20 years and approximately 80 collections later and they are still searching for a look and an identity!

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I can’t tell who is drinking the Kool-Aid. The reviewer or the designers....

Proenza Schouler Resort 2022

Okay, let’s start by asking what season is this... I know what it’s supposed to be but I’m confused due to what I see! It is incomprehensible to me that these two joy boys turn out collection after collection that mean nothing, say nothing and certainly don’t bring anything to the fashion table.

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I have yet to figure out who their customer is other than one who likes to buy clothes just because of a label...oh yes, the label whores! Someone needs to tell me who, what kind of woman, what aged woman is running by any means possible of purchase to own these clothes.

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I have said time and time again, every season they shop for a new client and this season is no different except that the it reminds of that Vivaldi hit...The Four Seasons.

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When anyone can rationally explain this all to me, please let me know as it’s been puzzling me far too long.

Proenza Schouler fall 2021

“Unbelievably, McCollough and Hernandez are a year shy of their 20th anniversary; it was 2002 when Barneys bought their Parsons graduate collection.”

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Even more unbelievably is that first that they are still in business, second is that they have never developed a look, a signature, a style that can be identified with them and lastly that they are still hyped and praised for collections that shop for a new client each and every season and have no reason for being

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 “a spongy knit dress with an askew head hole or a top with a swooping asymmetrical hem. The former snaked around the body, while the latter had a buoyant sculptural volume.”

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The above quote is written by a so-called fashion maven who apparently can’t find the words to describe the absolute fantasy that this is yet one more collection with no point of view and no raison d’être. It is indeed the emperor’s new clothes. How can a critic talk around the clothes let alone outright lie about what is in plain sight?

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Every business model they have attempted has failed, people have lost stellar reputations and their jobs because of them and lastly their last great cheerleader has finally gotten canned, hopefully for all the pandering she has effused about them and so many others while far more original and talented designers get unnoticed and actually sell clothes season after season. It is sort of a very fitting finale to whatever season this was as this collection reflects something that once existed in one of the major fashion capitals of the world. If this is the best of what we have then we should throw in the towel and just call it a day.

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It is far more difficult to lie than tell the truth! PS a few parting thoughts ... what season is this with furry slippers that don’t fit, straw bags, white sandals, fur trim and slip dresses? As far as Kamala’s step-daughter is just one more PR trick /distraction from the clothes themselves!

Proenza Schouler spring 2021

 Well here is a collection of generic clothes that both  Nicole and Bridget can ooze over.  Every season these two have found some other iteration that is supposedly defining their definitive  direction and/or making  a statement… one season it’s tight, one loose, one upcycled, one denim, one working  girls and the list  goes on  ad nauseum and in the end it is always  the same ….. a regurgitation of a press release or as Clara Peller once famously asked in a Wendy’s hamburger commercial… where’s the beef? 

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Yada, yada, yada and yes there are some clothes that are pretty but nonetheless they make no statement and barely pass as generic .. so my question is who is the sugar daddy that keeps pouring money into these two who haven’t “brought home the bacon or the beef” in years?

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Just another bunch of  clothes where by accident  a few pieces look like they come from one collection!

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Proenza Schouler SPRING 2020

For over 15 years I have been in this conundrum as to why these two designers have been hyped to death and still have yet to develop a signature look or something that is inextricably links their brand to their oeuvre. Yes, Jack McCollough  Lazaro Hernandez  were the it boys who were “blessed” by  Anna  but that blessing seems to be a bit of  a curse if you consider her history of who she has anointed  as “it”  boys… they either get fired, evaporate or just quit.

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So, one more time for Spring 2020 the joy boys have presented a pile of clothes that exhibit more tricky cuts and a lot of who cares. There is no thread of a continuum in the collection just clothes …. More and more clothes. Every season they seem to be shopping for a new customer!

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They have tried Paris, they have been through several backers and consultants and even were misguided enough to open a shop on Madison Avenue and yet they persist. So here is my question…. WHY?

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What exactly is their contribution to the world of fashion other than some more blah blah blah?  

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Proenza Schouler & Prabal Gurung prefall 2019

So the boys of Proenza Schouler bought back their company or shall I say someone did... and from the looks of it they will have a long wait for the ROI. Once again these clothes say nothing other than androgyny to a certain point and a lot of been there done that... and Zara. They obviously haven’t learned that clothes don’t come with explanations for their being and clothes like these won’t look like much or make much of a statement hanging on a rail. My advice would be get a look... make a statement and stick to it because shopping for a new client each season is not the answer to success which brings up to the next designer.

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Prabal Gurung who when he started made the most perfectly exquisite dresses and now for as long I can recall seems to be shopping for a new  client each season. Yes there are some pretty gowns but as far as continuity, the collection hits a lot of speed bumps along the way. The addition of menswear is somewhat silly unless of course one is a wannabe designer home boy. The gowns speak for themselves and the rest is just clothes for the sake of clothes and without a season.

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I understand that the demand on these designers is almost at break point with all the collections but wouldn’t it be easier to follow a path than continually taking a different one season after season to find the correct destination?

Proenza Schouler SPRING 2019

“This season, McCollough and Hernandez say they are focusing on designing clothes that allow them to “speak to more people,” using what they call “humble fabrics,” including washed cottons, but also something more unexpected. “We're by no means insinuating that we're going down market in any way,” McCollough clarified. “It's just kind of a new approach; we're attacking a new part of our customer's life." B of F …  9-10-18

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They were part of Anna’s pet boys... lauded, applauded, editorialized and placed upon the pedestal of rising stars…. How far the mighty have fallen and what a lousy judge Nuclear Wintour continues to be, The boys were the toast of 7^th Avenue for reasons unbeknownst to me but the fawning and adoration was overwhelming and no matter how hard I tried to find the core of this, I just never did.

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So now they have a majority stake owner, they tried Paris, they tried retail and now THIS is their epiphany… their cathartic moment when they honestly had the audacity to say that they are hoping for a deal similar to that of Thom Browne with Zegna; the problem is that Browne is brilliant. He may not design clothes for the masses or even the 1% but he is the mad scientist of fashion from the fantasy of his presentations to the clothing itself. Thom Browne is a visionary while these 2 jokers are still at the graduate level of final projects.

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Asymmetric 5 pocket jean closures,  shapeless dresses and clothes that hand off a body, bare midriffs, denim, mid-calf lengths  and yet another trench coat all add up to a whole of been there done that even if they are reaching “the little people”  and in “humble fabrics.” Designers would do themselves an enormous service if they focused on designing clothes rather than talking nonsense like that interview which has the distinct aroma of condescension... no tot mention false hope

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If this is what the world is waiting for then it’s time to pack it in … as they say at a crime scene. .. Keep moving nothing to see here. BUT, then again according to the so called fashion media and of course the know nothing swag filled world of influencers, this collection is a revelation … STOP THE PRESSES! Excuse me while I insert my finger down my throat.