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
