DKNY FW16

After Donna Karan stepped down from her eponymous diffusion line DKNY, the fashion world was introduced to a new designing duo- Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osbourne (ex-designers for Public School). For their September debut at the house, they delivered a collection - of course - solely inspired by New York. However, they seemed to avoid the free-spirited eclectic nature of the city’s youth and approached from a different angle, a more corporate slant. The collection was full of modernity, minimalism and sophistication: sartorialized suits, crisp white shirts and over-sized proportions. There is no doubt that they had e-commerce in their minds when creating that collection.

Their second collection, on the other hand, was a tribute to New York’s streetwear culture. 90s’ motifs fluctuated throughout the collection, combined with Japanese cuts and silhouettes. I love how they are revitalizing the house by deconstructing all the wardrobe basics and re-working them into more wearable hybrids of the versions before. Take the DKNY signature, the pinstripe suit, for example. They totally lacerated it, creating a cropped blazer with baggy trousers being held up by giant buckled suspenders.
  

 

Tomboy is a word I would associate with this collection. We had chunky combat boots, the masculinized proportions of a re-shaped shirt dress with asymmetrical lines and a pair of striped tracksuit dungarees held up with huge plastic clips; what more could you wish for?

 

Re-worked shirt dress

90-esque sartorially striped dungarees

I took a particular liking to the velvet blazer which sat loosely above a high-neck lace bodice and also the white shirts with laser-cut details were just sumptuous.  

 

For the finale we were presented to a vast array of neoprene sweatshirts emblazoned with fresh new anagrams of ‘DKNY’ like ‘Designers know nothing yet’ and ‘Don’t knock New York’, definitely a clever way to show us that their legacy has just begun.

Evidently, being their second collection, Chow and Osbourne are still figuring out who their DKNY girl is – however, I think they are certainly heading on the right road for success!
  

 Please Note: I do not own any of these images, courtesy of Vogue.co.uk and theimpression.com