Brandon Maxwell’s eponymous brand will celebrate its 10th anniversary next year. This is something that can be achieved at any time, but especially in our case, where independent designers find themselves in a difficult position. And he looks back at his early collections to see what will resonate 10 years from now. He’s been a minimalist since the beginning, and he still is, but the attitude of this collection is very different from when he started, around 2015.
Moving his styling duties to a design studio, his early aesthetic was dressed up. His client Lady Gaga was in the front row at his first show. Here he de-emphasized the glamor attached to his work, which he explained in his Flatiron showroom, “to get to the real, to get down to the real.”
The collection’s starting point was a blouson-style faded denim jacket. Though styled in the photo over a long chiffon dress, he expects clients to actually wear it with low-waisted, drop-crotch khaki pants, which appear later in the lookbook. . The pants, with their snap-front waistband, are as casual as any of the pants he’s shown, complementing an asymmetrical ribbed black T-shirt with rhodium hardware on one of the draped shoulders. He created similar “knots” in 18k gold plate, as well as custom buttons in the shape of mini macarons.
In search of “something more casual and easy,” his latest runway collection leant toward overly muted hues. This one had a better balance. Pinstripes were cut into small cinched-waisted jackets and pants, and off-shoulder dresses had pinstripes draped on the bias. A bomber in soft nappa leather and a ‘biker jacket’ cardigan in bulky ribbed cashmere. Additionally, metal threads are used in the organdy separates, giving them a crushed texture that emphasizes their ease of use. “You have to evolve, because I evolved,” he said.
