Proenza Schouler Spring 2015

by gimmegoodstyle

My high school uniform is a clean white shirt with bluish pants for boys and pleated greyish skirts for girls. Sometimes we put a simple black sweater or parka when the air conditioners get too cold or some idiots forget to turn them off after school ends. According to my untrained eyes, those clothes were boring. According to Proenza duo, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, those are classic American sport wears that become the core of their Spring 2015 collection.

Sure, the collection only consists of pleated skirts, polo shirts, parkas, blouses and some nice shirts. However, all of them have been deconstructed and reconstructed with Proenza own materials, resulting in a heavier, cooler after images.

Leather is back on Proenza runway again. This time as colour-blocked pants that will definitely fill the front page of my blog in several weeks. After the great return of leather (I also spotted cool polo shirts with leather crocheted seams), the next great surprise came from fringe. Shaped as a whole dress rather than a standard classic-American accessory, the tricky overused material in the past injected some exciting twists to the collection without changing the whole concept.

Now, the everlasting question is whether this is a great collection or not.

Well, frankly speaking, there are some hit and miss for Proenza this time. Even though, I have nothing against leather, those red-and-black color-blocked leather pants are just plain silly for me. Even Style.com admits the bitter fact. And I do notice, like Jonathan Simkhai, Proenza has some look-alike pieces from their Fall/Winter collection. Not that it is a sin whatsoever, but sometimes consistency can be a huge downfall for a designer.

It would be nice, if next season Proenza can come out of their too-cool-for-school image and do something more… out of their box, especially with LVMH eyeing to get ‘minor’ shares from Proenza Schouler. That means a huge financial back up and possibilities to open new stores all over the globe. A tempting once-in-a-billion-lifetime offer.

Except for the mismatched color blocked pants disaster (or the next big thing whatever you want me to call it), the collection is a parade of cool wearable clothes with thrilling ‘New York’ atmosphere. A small reminder that your basic cool uniforms can be cool in the hands of Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez. My salute to you boys!

Images taken from Style.com

See the complete collection here.