Area (Q2706)
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Area is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Area |
Area is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
At Area’s tenth anniversary show this morning, you could hear the models’ Cuban-heeled boots stomping on the runway before you saw the first look: a navy suit with a wide shouldered jacket, accessorized with a matching officer’s cap worn low on the face, obscuring the eyes but not the attitude. “It’s been 10 years of huge independence, 10 years of championing creativity, people, inclusivity; so we were like, ‘OK, what is this collection going to be about?’” Piotrek Panszczyk said during a preview at the Area showroom a few days before the show. “We were looking back at what we did, in a sense, but we would never do a greatest hits collection, so we were thinking about, ‘what is the key thing that really defines us?’” In a very meta way, searching for the thing that exemplified their identity became the very thing that they based their collection around.At Area the creative process is heavy on exploration, collaboration, and exhausting the threads that an idea or a concept can lead to. “Identity can refer to belonging or not belonging, it can be a comfort or it can not be—it can be an annoyance to be identified,” said Panszczyk. The obvious place to begin was, of course, the thumbprint—the singular thing that identifies each and every one of us. Blown-up and in a shade of black on brown, the pattern became a sort of animal print, used to great effect on a Mugler-esque jacket with impossibly wide shoulders, an extra wide and extra tall lapel, tightly cinched at the waist with an oversized belt, and on a very feminine strapless mid-length dress with an ample dropped-waist skirt. Thumbprints also decorated the seasonal hardware whose shapes were inspired by “name plates, plaques, and office doors,” although the result was more Georgia O’Keeffe Southwestern jewelry than standard uniform fare, meaning something closer to humanity and the natural world—which Panszczyk welcomed. That tension was also present in a group of worn-in leather pieces in shiny black with tanned edges, among the collection’s best.Denim is a big part of Area’s business, but this season was all about leather; moto-jackets, baggy workwear-inspired pants, and bustiers in shiny black leather with worn-in tanned edges. Another moto-jacket, a vest and a skirt were embellished with an abundance of beads, spikes, sequins, and all other types of decoration found in the designer’s storage.
The three pieces shown on the runway were one-of-a-kind, hand-made in-house, and available only by special order. Not surprisingly, hands ended up becoming another motif in the collection: traces of hands, like the kind that kids make in elementary school and eventually turn into turkeys, were cut out from silk taffeta and appliquéd into gowns in the same manner as one would use feathers. They were woven (not printed) onto jeans like so many pairs in the 1980s; and they were printed, in bright red, on a black T-shirt in the same position as a woman might place her hands against her stomach while yelling “bans off our bodies” at a protest. It was part of a collaboration with Tinder, a sponsor of the show, which agreed to donate $25,000 to Planned Parenthood in the brand’s name.“The most important thing for us is to be an individual and to always make your own choices,” Panszczyk added. “It was really important for us to showcase that in this collection.”
6 September 2024
At Area’s tenth anniversary show this morning, you could hear the models’ Cuban-heeled boots stomping on the runway before you saw the first look: a navy suit with a wide shouldered jacket, accessorized with a matching officer’s cap worn low on the face, obscuring the eyes but not the attitude. “It’s been 10 years of huge independence, 10 years of championing creativity, people, inclusivity; so we were like, ‘OK, what is this collection going to be about?’” Piotrek Panszczyk said during a preview at the Area showroom a few days before the show. “We were looking back at what we did, in a sense, but we would never do a greatest hits collection, so we were thinking about, ‘what is the key thing that really defines us?’” In a very meta way, searching for the thing that exemplified their identity became the very thing that they based their collection around.At Area the creative process is heavy on exploration, collaboration, and exhausting the threads that an idea or a concept can lead to. “Identity can refer to belonging or not belonging, it can be a comfort or it can not be—it can be an annoyance to be identified,” said Panszczyk. The obvious place to begin was, of course, the thumbprint—the singular thing that identifies each and every one of us. Blown-up and in a shade of black on brown, the pattern became a sort of animal print, used to great effect on a Mugler-esque jacket with impossibly wide shoulders, an extra wide and extra tall lapel, tightly cinched at the waist with an oversized belt, and on a very feminine strapless mid-length dress with an ample dropped-waist skirt. Thumbprints also decorated the seasonal hardware whose shapes were inspired by “name plates, plaques, and office doors,” although the result was more Georgia O’Keeffe Southwestern jewelry than standard uniform fare, meaning something closer to humanity and the natural world—which Panszczyk welcomed. That tension was also present in a group of worn-in leather pieces in shiny black with tanned edges, among the collection’s best.Denim is a big part of Area’s business, but this season was all about leather; moto-jackets, baggy workwear-inspired pants, and bustiers in shiny black leather with worn-in tanned edges. Another moto-jacket, a vest and a skirt were embellished with an abundance of beads, spikes, sequins, and all other types of decoration found in the designer’s storage.
The three pieces shown on the runway were one-of-a-kind, hand-made in-house, and available only by special order. Not surprisingly, hands ended up becoming another motif in the collection: traces of hands, like the kind that kids make in elementary school and eventually turn into turkeys, were cut out from silk taffeta and appliquéd into gowns in the same manner as one would use feathers. They were woven (not printed) onto jeans like so many pairs in the 1980s; and they were printed, in bright red, on a black T-shirt in the same position as a woman might place her hands against her stomach while yelling “bans off our bodies” at a protest. It was part of a collaboration with Tinder, a sponsor of the show, which agreed to donate $25,000 to Planned Parenthood in the brand’s name.“The most important thing for us is to be an individual and to always make your own choices,” Panszczyk added. “It was really important for us to showcase that in this collection.”
6 September 2024
Ten years in and Area’s Piotrek Panszczyk has his collection development down to an exact formula: a group of terrific novelty jeans, a groovy print, and crystal-embellished party-ready separates that are sexy but never basic, thanks to their interesting fabrication. And yet the results are always unexpected, due to a belief in creative experimentation that always pushes an idea beyond its usual limits.Pre-fall found Panszczyk and his team thinking about romance and femininity. “On one side we had hearts and were looking at things like broderie anglaise and fabrics that feel super feminine, light, and summery. And on the other, we had a lot of leather biker references and were trying to merge these two worlds together,” he explained. “So we made a heart motif and laser cut it on bonded leather.” It was especially successful when applied to a classic motorcycle jacket, which he paired with a swingy A-line ruffled skirt and laser cut leather leggings (his take on fishnet tights). Together the pieces paid low-key homage to Azzedine Alaïa, and perhaps that’s why they seemed destined to end up on one of the many pop girlies who will be releasing records and going on tour this summer. But it’s easy to see the pieces by themselves, especially the jacket, having a long life in the closet of us regular folk.Denim came in a light stonewash and pure blue hue, and the It style of the season was a pair of wide-leg jeans in both washes with an intarsia heart motif running down the front of the legs that recalled those braided jeans of the 1980s—but blown up. There was indeed an undercurrent of the decade in the collection overall, especially in the technicolor heart-and-flowers print inspired by the American print designerKen Scottthat appeared on skintight disco pants, bike shorts, and an oversized moto jacket with a denim trim. Elsewhere, the floral print was turned into 3D flower pins—like the ones Carrie Bradshaw popularized in the aughts—decorated with hand-cut feathered heartsA micro-dress embellished with allover teardrop-shaped crystals (“When you put them together, they make a heart”) was striking in its intricate simplicity, and a teeny bandeau top version with the same embellishment, paired with baggy jeans that had two (also embellished) slits at the upper thighs, transmitted a feeling of carefree youth.
17 June 2024
Area’s Piotrek Panszczyk is looking for new perspectives. “This is our tenth year in business, so we thought it was a perfect time to switch things up,” he explained at his Chinatown studio the day before the show. “We’re expanding into more and more categories and they don’t always click for a lot of people; if you come from a fashion show kind of perspective, maybe you don’t know that we also do jeans, and we also do jersey.” Panszczyk and his team are excellent at deconstructing and digging into his chosen theme each season until he finds something new and exciting. This season the starting point was eyes, which led to cartoon eyes, which led to the simplified shape of a circle inside another circle. “The eyes as a symbol just always speak to us because they connect so many of our favorite art forms like Pop Art in the ’60s or surrealism in the 1920s; from Warhol to Man Ray,” he said.Today, at the Starrett-Lehigh building, the familiar sound of cartoonboioioingsset the pace for the designer’s eyeful explorations which led him into very mod territory. The show opened with a simple mini shift dress in white leather with circular leather appliqués at the chest in the shape of eyes (and silver studs for irises). Eye shapes were also cut out from pink leather to create an oversized coat and matching mini skirt in carnation pink, and another in white, which he paired with a high waist slim maxi skirt.Denim is a big category for Area and every season there is a new novel approach to the fabric. This season, he created a Dalmatian jacquard denim that was truly fantastic. (If you look at enough white and black oval shapes, you’ll eventually start thinking about Dalmatian spots.) With this group he really showed the Area way of doing things: for editorial, a very Balenciaga-esque long veiled-cape dress. And for those who fall in love with that piece, a pair of hot pants, an oversize shirtdress, a corset top, and of course, wide-leg jeans. It worked. A series of floral jersey pieces in the middle felt perhaps a little too commercial to fit in with the runway fantasy—and Panszczyk’s runwayisabove all, a fantasy: a shift dress covered in googly eyes that floated above the body, the cropped top and car wash skirt made entirely of oversize crystals that jingled and jangled as the model walked, and especially the crochet dress embellished with leather flowers that seems destined for a red carpet somewhere. But Panszczyk can also create impact through minimalism.
At the end of the show, the concept had been stripped back to its essence: a gold metallic ring with a crystal floating in the middle, floating in a sea of black cotton. It appeared at the center of a simple oversize cotton shirt, at the halter neck of an easy jumpsuit, and also on the breasts of a slim strapless shift.
11 February 2024
For resort, Area’s Piotrek Panszczyk was thinking about “the mundane, the basics you really need in a wardrobe.” “We wanted to play with simplicity in a way we hadn’t really done for a while,” he said on a Zoom fresh from Milan where he’s recently begun doing Area’s production. Only for Panszczyk could “simplicity” mean a collection full of polka dots inspired by Pop Art and Roy Lichtenstein—though he and his team really experimented with different treatments and fabrics.Easy bustiers and relaxed motorcycle jackets were made out of a tech gabardine, with “heat-affixed” polka dots that added interest in the way of texture, especially in butter yellow. (The lookbook is presented in stark black and white, but along with the popular shade of yellow, the collection also includes a brilliant shade of red.) In jersey, an easy boxy shift dress with a deep rounded rectangular back cutout is one of the pieces that best embodies the “back to basics” approach Panszczyk was after this season.Some of the standout pieces in the collection indulged in a bit of maximalism, like a series of spaghetti strap tops, miniskirts, and minidresses made from leather with star-shaped insets and decorated with hand-embroidered asymmetrically placed cabochons; or the black and white polka dot-and-star print tweed which looked especially great as a strapless column dress with a matching bolero jacket, both embellished with oversized gold and diamanté buttons. “Because we’re see now/buy now, we’ve seen that this is something people are really gravitating towards, something they’re really buying into,” the designer explained. “They love this kind of graphicness; it’s still referential but it also feels a bit more modern.”
11 December 2023
“Where did it all begin?” was the question on Piotrek Panszczyk’s mind as he worked on Area’s fall collection. “It” being the human race. He’d been “thinking about prehistoric times and how pelts and bones were kind of the first things humans had to build an identity around,” he said a few days ahead of the show at his Chinatown studio. “It started with this idea of the primal instinct that through the centuries morphed into desire, and then eventually a kind of excess and the life cycle of luxury.”The idea was cleverly developed: there were “fur pelt” coats made from fur-printed denim in a variety of colors that delivered runway drama, fur-print, low-slung jeans, and a mini dress with bulbous little godets that spoke to Panszczyk’s commitment to offering real-world alternatives to fantasy. To a soundtrack of tools banging against each other, which eventually evolved into an industrial beat, came models in big-shouldered jackets or slinky jersey pieces punctuated by beastly rips, the gold-embellished bones of their attackers still elegantly attached to their clothes. Perhaps because the shapes were not instantly recognizable as belonging to any one specific animal, the effect remained decorative instead of reading as Halloween-y. “We wanted to hand sculpt these custom gold jewels, in an almost Elsa Peretti kind of way,” Panszczyk explained. “We always love this kind of notion of something that could be so ‘on the nose,’ almost like Halloween, but there’s also a beauty to it. In Elizabethan times, people had diamond skull rings, and it was almost like a secret code to the underworld.”It wouldn’t be an Area show without some over-the-top crystal embellishment moments, which came through a series of elegantly draped all-over embroidered gowns inspired by Vionnet—one of Panszczyk’s constant points of reference—decorated with shiny “bones” hand sculpted from resin á la Wilma and Betty fromThe Flintstones. A version done in fur didn’t quite hit the mark (though it was a beautiful shade of blueish green), but a purple iteration did: it had a curved bone whose placement in the middle of the body created a beautiful line that hit Panszczyk’s desire for a little humor and a little glam. The most elegant piece was a mint green gown with short sleeves, a plunging neckline, and cutouts around the armpits: it was beautiful in the simplicity of its cut, no bones required.
11 September 2023
For pre-fall, Area’s Piotrek Panszczyk was thinking about butterflies, even though he “kind of hates butterflies.” His antipathy for the little creatures was precisely why they were so appealing. “I love diving into things that I personally don’t relate to and making them my own,” he said over Zoom.“Previously we did it in a kind of iconic ’90s-Mariah Carey-Salma Hayek way,” the designer added, referencing the bedazzled going-out tops worn by the stars that have since become Gen Z cultural touchpoints. “So I was thinking, how can we really flip the script a bit, you know, especially coming off from the last runway, which was a bit more moody.” While there was one bedazzled butterfly-shaped going-out top for the girlies, the majority of the collection saw Panszczyk and the Area team explore new ground. A black cropped tailored jacket with contrasting white oversized lapels that captured an abstracted butterfly silhouette, and another tailored button-front jacket with two appliqued white butterflies (that could also pass for bows) set the tone for the collection. It was playful, but serious. For a lady. Even if the jacket was worn with high-cut black bikini underwear.Panszczyk has a knack for hitting all of the different commercial categories that Area is known for with a unique flavor that makes the clothes seem like fashion-forward offerings and not afterthoughts. For the sporty set, for example, a black t-shirt with a butterfly cutout in the middle, with a beige trim, worn with matching leggings, also with a butterfly cutout around the upper thigh. “We did a lot of fittings, to get the cutouts right,” the designer said, laughing, about the skin-revealing garments.This season’s denim styles were among Area’s best. Separates made from raw Japanese denim featured cutouts and butterfly-appliqués made from the same fabric; a little denim jacket, bustier mini dress, and a mini skirt were pumped up to 11 in a groovy hand-drawn butterfly print in shades of purple, pink, white, and black, on a green background embellished with crystal butterflies. Lastly, a four-button, slightly longer, single breasted jacket, worn with a very narrow jean hemmed right below the ankle, was made from a powder blue washed-denim with crystal-embroidered “moth holes.” “We were thinking, ‘what if it’s a butterfly at night? What if it’s a moth?’” Panszczyk explained.
The vastness of the research was also evident in a series of colorblock ponte jersey separates, in particular a long gown with a cutout at the chest, plus playful circular cutouts on the shoulders and the knees. They began by “looking at the antlers butterflies have,” before becoming, “a ’70s geometric jewelry kind of thing,” then finally arriving at a “Stephen Burrows kind of psychedelic feel.” Even without all the 3D, architectural details that had become Area’s trademark, Panszczyk seems to be having just as much fun designing for the human body, exactly as it is.
22 May 2023
The unmistakable noise of flies buzzed through speakers as we waited for the Area show to start. The invitation, which had arrived in a brown paper bag earlier in the week and caused a minor sensation on social media, came in the shape of two squishy bananas (fake). “This season is all about fruits,” Piotrek Panszczyk said before the show at his studio in Chinatown. “The beauty of them, but also the symbolic meaning of them. In a way you can think of fruit as something fresh, a new start, but when it starts decaying, it becomes about mortality.”And so the show opened with sculptural banana looks: a cropped top and a skirt made of oversized banana sculptures (the bananas were facing out, like in a bunch), followed by a jacket with banana sculptures surrounding the bodice, followed by a strapless denim mini dress, all in tie-dye shades of pink, purple, and white which were meant to mimic the colors of bruised, rotten fruit. The next dress was made of small, individually draped and formed banana shapes that were joined together in the style of a bandage-dress, hugging the body and leaving nothing to the imagination. It was inspired by Madame Grès. “I always look at [her] through all our work, but we always translate [the inspiration] into rigid crystals. This season, we really started going back to fabric, going back to basics.” He added, “It’s not always about the hardness of embellishment, I think for us it’s also a new leap.”And while there were many sculptural pieces on the runway, it was indeed in the softness that Panszczyk found the most success.“This season there’s way more fluidity, we’re all about construction. We really started lightening it up, using laces, and fluid fabrics.” Such as the halter neck gown with a silhouette like an amphora made from a graphic black and white grape print, which was elegant and modern, or the red strapless empire waist flocked tulle gown with black lurex whose pattern brought to mind squashed grapes when wine is being made in a very sensual way.The fabric was equally well-suited to more market ready pieces, like a cropped top and mini skirt and an a-line mini dress with a criss-cross neckline. Lace catsuits came with subtle branding, a tiny ‘A’ meant to resemble flies, while a sporty short tracksuit was sexy and irreverent and exactly the kind of thing that makes Area so popular with retailers.
Another highlight of the show was its diverse cast, which featured a few older models as well as a few quote-unquote “curve” models, the latter wearing tailored gowns which hugged their bodies in the right places. “Aging also comes with beauty,” Panszczyk explained. “And I think for us it’s always important to showcase these different stages of life.” He added, “for us, it’s really about balancing these ideas, like how can it be about really, truly fantasy? And how can you evoke this kind of energy in real life?”
12 February 2023
Piotrek Panszczyk and his team began thinking about Area’s resort collection from a very literal place—the wordresortitself. “If you look through history at people like Yves Saint Laurent, Ungaro, Jean Paul Gaultier, there’s always this idea of going back to a marinier, a rope, an anchor…these symbolic tropes, basically,” he said. “We wanted to dissect these ideas and kind of turn them on their head. He chose the mussel (“something quite erotic and not really glamorous”) as his starting point, because it reminded him of hometown. “I [was] raised in Holland, on the Belgium border and that area has a really big mussel-fishing industry,” he explained. He cast the mussel shells in metal and paired them together in a floral pattern that adorned skimpy glamazon-ready bras, bustiers, and bodysuits. They are highly editorial pieces ready to be photographed for magazines, record covers, and the like (the look book itself was shot by Collier Schorr).But at Area, Panszczyk is interested in transmitting his ideas and aesthetic vision to as many people as possible, and although his sculptural pieces are certainly works of art, his “more approachable” pieces carry just as much of his energy. Like the pink leather car coat decorated with laser cutouts and embellished with the metal mussel flowers, which manages to be both practical and completely fantastical, and a black column gown whose bodice is draped to resemble two mussel shells, trimmed in crystals. He also cut and quilted leather to resemble mussel shells, which he whipped into a mini skirt (shown with a matching mussel-shell-flower bra, of course).Also successful were explorations around rope, which resulted in intricately constructed tailored pieces—squiggly strips of fabric cut and hand-woven to look like strands of material wrapping around each other—that showed off Panszczyk’s talent. In an open-work coat done in Area’s signature houndstooth print in contrasting shades of black and pink, it hinted at the demi-couture the label is known for; in white crepe, it was a sexy-yet-easy dress suitable for red carpets and parties alike. But it was on a pair of jeans—pieced together from a dark wash and a light blue denim, with a mussel-shell flower adorning the waistband—that the democratic vision for his label shone brightest. With a high waist, a nice fit through the hips, and a slightly flaring leg, they were simply a great pair of jeans—just with a little something extra.
“If you look at our brand, it evolves, but it never really changes, you know?” Panszczyk said. “Some of these techniques are actual couture techniques that we began exploring during our first show, and no one ever thought we could actually commercialize them, but it’s because we did it like nine times after that. It takes a lot of research and development.” He continues, “I love to see them used in major pieces, but I really love them also in utility pieces; when we can have an amazing denim that can actually be in the closets of a way-broader group of people. It doesn’t really say anything about our creativity, it says something about the way we see our business growing.”
5 December 2022
Outside the Area show at the Frick, a scene unfolded. On Madison Avenue, black luxury vans stopped to let out a myriad of celebrities and influencers: the rapper Saucy Santana, the singer Becky G, and the former reality television star Christine Quinn, whose yellow feathered bustier and tweed micro shorts were immediate fodder for a Daily Mail article (“Christine Quinn puts on a busty display in a yellow feathered crop top and TINY shorts as she steps out in the Big Apple for New York Fashion Week”). They stopped traffic and brought a bit of fashion fantasy to the uptown after-school pickup crowd. At some shows the celebrity contingent can seem forced, but at Area it makes perfect sense; who else but Coi Leray could pull off a bedazzled bustier the length of an Area logo with little bloomer shorts, a gathered pink chiffon hat, and jewel encrusted sandals that snake up around the leg up to the thigh, wrapping it in diamonds?The opening look, a cage dress made from bands of Japanese selvedge denim and covered in jumbo spikes around the body, sleeves and neck, was an immediate plea to be left alone, but worn with flat sandals, you could almost imagine the practical implications of wearing such a garment out in the real world—perhaps to take the train by oneself late at night? If it wasn’t obvious that underneath the spikes there was a wearable sporty denim dress, then the second look, a bustier with a sweetheart necklace and a matching miniskirt also made of denim, and featuring the season’s “folded bondage bow,” as it was named it in the show notes, finished spelling it out. At Area there is constant exploration of the liminal space between aggression and rebellion and making beautiful clothes that sell.“For me it’s always been so hard to understand that there’s this separation between stuff that you sell and stuff that you dream of,” designer Piotrek Panszczyk said after the show. “And it’s really about connecting the dots and showing people how they’re related to each other, and why both are really important.” And so if you looked beyond the jumbo spikes and the folded pyramid elements and the fantastic sculptural pieces that are Area’s signature, you’d notice the sporty jersey track pants with multicolor Swarovski details down the side worn with an easy sleeveless tank with a cutout detail at the chest, or the silver velvet jeans worn with a matching bustier.
You’d also spot a series of cocktail dresses that were classic in their execution, including a purple mini dress with a pleated detail at the sweetheart neckline (“Purple is this kind of religious color, there’s something very priest-like about it, so we wanted to embrace that and twist it and show it in a different way,” Panszczyk explained). A red floor length structured slip dress with all over embellishment stood out, too. Area also announced a collaboration with Sergio Rossi for this season, who did several pairs of high heeled strappy sandals as well as a pair of flats.Panszczyk said he began this season thinking about the idea of “fetish” or “fetishizing fashion.” “For us, fetishizing something is really being obsessed with it, and really being dedicated to it,” he said. The dedication is paying off.
13 September 2022
The internet has recently become fascinated with an AI image generator called Dall-E mini. The web application takes text input and translates it into a spooky, impressionist rendering of whatever your mind can dream up. It’s a tool Area’s Piotrek Panszczyk could do wonders with, at least if his pre-fall collection is any measure. Here, in images by Collier Schorr styled by Katie Burnett, he delivers Dua Lipa meets Marie Curie in the Garden of Eden, Hubert de Givenchy by way of harajuku flowers, and Edwige Bellmore via Emma Corrin, among other conflicting and contrasting moods.Flora and fauna were Panszczyk’s most obvious starting point, taking hot pink duchesse satin and creating static floral poufs that could be sized up or down to create a crop top and mini skirt or an entrancing dress. Flowers also appear as spiked crystal tops and pasties, as sunglasses, as earrings, and as crystal pants that wind up the legs. Since Area’s last collection, its showgirl potential has become more fully realized; these experiments in fluttering crystal seem destined for Beyoncé, Olivia Rodrigo, Precious Lee, or any of the other larger-than-life women that swear by the brand’s devilishly saccharine clothes.Careful to not give it all away in a pre-collection, Panszczyk has balanced it out with sharpened tailoring in black, white, and brown houndstooth boasting crystal trim, as well as an extended, Alaïa-esque section of leopard print pouf skirts and teensy bustiers. You could chasen him for borrowing so readily from other designer’s oeuvres if it was exactly how so many others of his generation work without ever acknowledging the reference or working to modify it to a current woman’s fixations.The disparate harmony of a blazers-to-pasties collection is justified by the Area books. According to Panszczyk and his co-founder Beckett Fogg, the customer wants a crystal-strewn tee as much as she wants a Vegas-worthy headpiece. Not much in between. For seasons, Area has been reckoning with these two poles, daily use versus drama, but it seems the brand is on its way to a single more unified vision of something “dainty, natural, sultry, and thorny.” Per Panszczyk, “sexiness is just a byproduct of wearing Area.” A woman’s confidence fills out these clothes and they are provocative not just in the physical sense but in the mental one: Do you have what it takes?
24 June 2022
For all the places Area has taken us, around the world and to outer space, a nightclub has strangely never been a stop along the way. It was maybe too obvious to Piotr Panszczyk—Area is a brand rooted in crystal trim and sexy cutouts. You get it; he doesn’t really need to spell it out. But wow, what a treat when he does. For its spring 2022 collection, Area finally delved into its showgirl roots, touching on the Deco glamour of Zizi Jeanmaire, the exuberant costumes of Brazil’s Carnaval, and the slouchy glitz of an off-duty Vegas dancer. “We are all showgirls,” Panszczyk said within Area’s new, Crosby Studios–designed showroom that is completely silver, ceiling to floor, save for an entirely gilded bathroom (“Wouldn’t you be upset if the bathroom was just normal?” he asked). “And showgirls aren’t just about being pretty. It’s political; it’s about their bodies—and they are tough.”The Follies Area are oozing sparkle—crystal pants, obsessive beading in every color of the rainbow, A-R-E-A spelled out in crystal on their thongs—but the spirit is different. No more thoughtless spangle, no flippant sexiness. In a video, Connie Fleming, Janet Jumbo, Sophie Koella, Precious Lee, Lulu Tenney, and Mariana Pardinho move like Mugler-inspired Barbarellas—rigid, assertive, almost threatening in their beauty. The clothes are as diverse as the women who wear them: Sweatsuits are trimmed with feathers; baggy jeans have cutouts on the thighs; and blazers are modeled on corset shapes, fastening with hook-and-eye closures. There’s no question: These are over-the-top pieces for a woman who knows what she wants.When it comes to the couture elements of Area’s latest, props to Panszczyk for asking a question so demented it has surely never been asked before: What if Jean Arp were sexy and sparkly? Working with embroidery artisans in India, the designer built bulbous bodies out of padding and strict seaming, and had the artisans embroider them completely with beads, crystals, and sequins. Metal headpieces, tops, and jewelry were handmade by a German artist in Rome to evoke the tremble of feathers. The level of handwork is resplendent, and amid a NYFW of problem-solving clothes, it feels even more a delight to be in the presence of such unadulterated creativity. It’s also funny. As we sat on Area’s couch—a sectional composed of the puffy letters A-R-E-A—and watched the film, Panszczyk screamed, “It’s giving bird!” about Tenney’s feathered boots.
Fashion can be too self-serious; Panszczyk has hit his stride with this collection and isn’t afraid to giggle about it. Cheers all around!
13 February 2022
For all the places Area has taken us, around the world and to outer space, a nightclub has strangely never been a stop along the way. It was maybe too obvious to Piotr Panszczyk—Area is a brand rooted in crystal trim and sexy cutouts. You get it; he doesn’t really need to spell it out. But wow, what a treat when he does. For its spring 2022 collection, Area finally delved into its showgirl roots, touching on the Deco glamour of Zizi Jeanmaire, the exuberant costumes of Brazil’s Carnaval, and the slouchy glitz of an off-duty Vegas dancer. “We are all showgirls,” Panszczyk said within Area’s new, Crosby Studios–designed showroom that is completely silver, ceiling to floor, save for an entirely gilded bathroom (“Wouldn’t you be upset if the bathroom was just normal?” he asked). “And showgirls aren’t just about being pretty. It’s political; it’s about their bodies—and they are tough.”The Follies Area are oozing sparkle—crystal pants, obsessive beading in every color of the rainbow, A-R-E-A spelled out in crystal on their thongs—but the spirit is different. No more thoughtless spangle, no flippant sexiness. In a video, Connie Fleming, Janet Jumbo, Sophie Koella, Precious Lee, Lulu Tenney, and Mariana Pardinho move like Mugler-inspired Barbarellas—rigid, assertive, almost threatening in their beauty. The clothes are as diverse as the women who wear them: Sweatsuits are trimmed with feathers; baggy jeans have cutouts on the thighs; and blazers are modeled on corset shapes, fastening with hook-and-eye closures. There’s no question: These are over-the-top pieces for a woman who knows what she wants.When it comes to the couture elements of Area’s latest, props to Panszczyk for asking a question so demented it has surely never been asked before: What if Jean Arp were sexy and sparkly? Working with embroidery artisans in India, the designer built bulbous bodies out of padding and strict seaming, and had the artisans embroider them completely with beads, crystals, and sequins. Metal headpieces, tops, and jewelry were handmade by a German artist in Rome to evoke the tremble of feathers. The level of handwork is resplendent, and amid a NYFW of problem-solving clothes, it feels even more a delight to be in the presence of such unadulterated creativity. It’s also funny. As we sat on Area’s couch—a sectional composed of the puffy letters A-R-E-A—and watched the film, Panszczyk screamed, “It’s giving bird!” about Tenney’s feathered boots.
Fashion can be too self-serious; Panszczyk has hit his stride with this collection and isn’t afraid to giggle about it. Cheers all around!
13 February 2022
“It’s about femininity in all its forms,” said Area’s Piotrek Panszczyk from the brand’s massive new studio on the Bowery. “From hard-core sex kitten to something daintier with pink, daisies, and crystals.” That might sound impossibly broad, but reaching out to all the hot girls, quirky chicks, and vampish women is something Area has specialized in since the brand was founded in 2013—and in a way, resort 2022 feels like something of a homecoming.The collection (which consists of nearly 100 pieces, though regrettably only 11 looks are shown) spans racy lingerie dotted with crystal bows, chic ivory suiting dangling with crystal fringe, and kitschy denim punctuated with massive brass studs.It’s a lot of look and a lot of drama for a ready-to-wear offering—but Panszczyk affirms it sells. In fact, customers are reportedly so moved by Area’s hyper-realized glamour that one recently drove from Pennsylvania to the brand’s New Jersey warehouse to pick up a look for her birthday. “People are like that,” she said with a laugh. “They need a look for a birthday, a party, an event—and they need itnow!”Party options are many this season, with Area creating its own lace from crystal patterns, drawing inspiration from medieval armor for giant studded leather bows and bustiers, and ingeniously embellishing a black minidress with bright red press-on nails for a “rhinestoned at the nail salon” bit of camp. A growing denim offering adds to the label’s ready-to-wear expansion, as do its popular platform clogs and square-toed mules, now adorned with sweet little daisy charms. With the collection landing on Area’s e-commerce site today, it seems like only a matter of time before bombshells from Miami to Macau start trying out the brand’s manic new femininity. After the fits and starts of 2021, a little shimmer is hard to resist.
6 December 2021
Part of designing, maybe the most crucial part, is questioning. Few do it with the vigor of Area’s Piotrek Panszczyk and Beckett Fogg. Since launching the brand in 2013, the designers have done so much introspection and recalibration that it’s hard to know if it’s the go-to brand for haute space bitches, haunting Dadaist ghouls, pop star glamazons, or former first ladies. Ask Panszczyk and he’ll answer that the label has always been for everyone but the clothes didn’t always show it, seasonally skewing in favor of one audience while cutting out the rest.Panszczyk and Fogg took 2020 to recenter themselves and their brand, choosing to show in season and to make salability and creativity equal parts of their process. Not either/or but both. As Panszczyk explained over a Zoom call, their shoppers have just as much desire for a couture-grade crystal pantie as they do a pair of crystal-studded jeans.To meet their needs, Area presented its own kind of solution dressing this season, injecting glamour into normcore and normalcy into high-gloss glamorama. Jeans enter the picture in a medium-wash straight-leg style adorned with crystals and paired with a bitchy little bustier. Tweed suiting is cropped and shrunken, with rhinestone fringe falling from hems. A classic LBD comes in vinyl, and the brand’s famous pale pink lamé returns in the form of iridescent minidresses, corsets, and skirts. Knitwear is growing too, with pink and lime pieces dotted with tiny crystal bows.This new Area wardrobe captures the vixenish nature of the label without compromising on wearability; exactly the branding exercise a company needs to push it from emerging to established. But Panszczyk and Fogg are smart to not let their good business sense totally overshadow the weirdness that makes Area special. During the pandemic they connected with Chinese designer Dingyun Zhang, whose enormous puffer jackets have also caught the eye of Kanye West and his Yeezy team. After a couple DMs, the trio decided to collaborate, cropping Zhang’s puffers into cloudlike vests, bralettes, and skirts, and then tamping them down with Area’s crystal harnesses. The results are delightfully kooky, heavenly, and sensual all at once, like if Dua Lipa wanted to cosplay as Aphrodite. Area’s year of questioning has yielded some good answers.
1 September 2021
Striking a balance between commerciality, wearability, and the fantastically femme fatale is the Area conundrum. It’s something Beckett Fogg and Piotrek Panszczyk began to tackle with their first pre-fall collection for the 2016 season. Back then they created long silk shirts and embossed tees inspired by their own wardrobes. Five years and thousands of crystal garments later, the pair are surer about what everyday Area can and should be. Turns out it’s as simple (or complicated, depending on your POV) as jeans and suiting.Rather than send out denim “as a novelty,” as Panszczyk called their previous ventures into the material, the pair spent their first post-pandemic months in the studio perfecting a medium wash, straight leg fit. The special Area touch comes in the form of crystal-trimmed cut-outs on the thighs and around the pockets. Denim shorts with crystal fringe are paired with daintily sexy crystal tops or tartan blazers, the latter being their send-up of proper Brit tailoring. One neon pink version comes with a giant heart cut-out on the front to reveal a crystal bra—or nothing at all—underneath. Other styles have detachable pillow panniers inside, to pump up hips into New Look proportions or keep deflated for a more streamlined shape. Black cocktail dresses and crystal dangly bits abound. Shot on a cast of New York dream girls like Alek Wek, Lindsey Wixson, and Precious Lee, the collection looks both viable and vampish, a good carry over until Area hits the runway again—we hope soon.
28 June 2021
“We can do easy, but it still feels like a punch in your face,” smirks Piotrek Panszczyk over a Zoom call. Beckett Fogg, his Area cofounder, is smiling in her own Zoom square. The pair are presenting their second see-now-buy-now ready-to-wear offering, a total trip of glitz, Dadaism, and some Margiela-esque subversions. The “easy” Panszczyk is speaking of is a scan of the brand’s many crystal pieces that has been digitally manipulated and printed on mesh and denim. The result is a selection of stretchy bodywear and loose jeans that have all the camp and glory of a full-body crystal Area piece at a fraction of the cost—and double the comfort.Unlocking the ability to offer the full Area proposition—bitchy, hot, catty space diva—has opened up a new galaxy of creative potential for Panszczyk and Fogg. The more conceptual pieces take the idea of duality, two ideas swirling together, and represent it literally in a spiral of fabric on bosoms and blazers. Models wear full face masks and giant crystal bow headbands, their feet tucked into platform disco-inspired clogs. Paul Kooiker’s surreal photography only makes the Area proposition look all the more appealing: at once nostalgic (sort of Dada; sort of Area, the infamous nightclub), but also of our time (indoors, manic, brimming with self-expression). There’s a freedom in Area’s new path forward of fusing comfort, creativity, and e-commerce. The customer is always right—and the customer, Panszczyk and Fogg report, really wants Area.
22 March 2021
In this season’s couture collections, there have been plenty of gowns that speak in hushed, moneyed tones, but a growing cadre of newcomers—perhaps not coincidentally, many of whom are American—are making fashion for people who prefer to dress out loud. Area’s Beckett Fogg and Piotrek Panszczyk are among this new group.Technically, the New York–based designers are couture-adjacent; even guests on the official schedule must be sponsored by members. The duo recently restructured, dividing their output into ready-to-wear and one-offs, the better to give each category its due, but they believe that their made-to-measure work does indeed measure up. “I’m quite confident in saying that if you looked at a Parisienne or a Roman Alta Moda brand, I feel like we’re operating on the same level of craft,” says Panszczyk, from Area’s Canal Street atelier.In recent seasons, Fogg and Panszczyk have dazzled New York with collections that marry showgirl crystals and outlandish silhouettes with technically ambitious tailoring; Beyoncé and Michelle Obama have become clients. Their 14-look couture debut showcases that range, and their lookbook, which stars Precious Lee and Yasmin Wijnaldum, is a sort of statement of intent. This is most certainly not old-world couture, with its strictly sample size casting. “Difference for us is a positive thing,” Fogg says.Lee opens the lookbook in a black smoking, featuring extravagant metalwork trimming the cuffs. The designers, who are catholic in their references, said they were looking at the coin embroideries of Berber peoples for the jacket’s embellishments, as well as for a pair of delicate and quite dreamy dresses made from thousands of individually hand-finished circles of organza. The rib cage pieces, embroidered with Swarovski crystals in India and assembled on Canal Street, look destined for the Grammys or concert stages, once IRL events ramp back up again.Cake dresses whose tiers are fashioned from duchesse satin fully panniered in tulle do take their cues, Panszczyk said, from the couture of Emanuel Ungaro, Yves Saint Laurent, and Cristobal Balenciaga, but the Area designers constructed them so they are open on one side. Wijnaldum flashes skin from her shoulders to the crystal-encrusted tops of the black leather platform clogs that Area will be selling with their third ready-to-wear drop later this year. Definitely not your grandmother’s couture.
28 January 2021
Creativity is nonlinear. It can be nonnarrative too, a bubbling cauldron of passion, intensity, fury, and heart. Few young American designers make such a compelling case for unbridled creativity as Area’s Beckett Fogg and Piotrek Panszczyk. Their brand started out as a hyper-edited concept of superspace glamour rooted in material development; today, it is one of the most complex, if sometimes mind-bogglingly so, shows on the New York Fashion Week calendar. The pair’s fall 2020 collection was one of their most intensive yet, exploring fabrics, history, new technologies, collaboration, and cultural impact through garments that truly do not look like anything else on the market.Fogg and Panszczyk began their research this season with their venue, The Africa Center. The nonprofit cultural hub and museum was moved to the Upper East Side’s Museum Mile almost 10 years ago, but development stalled when funding fell out. The brand has inked a partnership with the center in the hopes of spotlighting African culture and craft in the United States. (One facet of the partnership already in place is bringing students from the New Design High School, where Area used to hold its shows, to The Africa Center to communicate with African artists through an immersive, real-time art installation calledPortal.) Weaving techniques native to Africa helped inform the show’s opening looks, too, but an Area collection is never just about one thing.As Fogg and Panszczyk walk through their collection, the pair spring into action naming their trillion reference points: Japanese tropical postcards they found in France, the pleating and draping of Madame Grès, leather costumes by Eiko Ishioka for Francis Ford Coppola’sDracula,interior design by the New York–based duo Myreality, and Romeo Gigli’s heart motifs. Most important is a boundary-free globalism. As designers, the pair pull inspiration from wherever they please, but what makes their clothing so interesting is the way they melt these disparate ideas together in a spectacular, occasionally confounding, alchemy. It’s reflective of the way they see the world, and how they see New York in particular: a borderless community of free spirits. Rather than assert ownership over any of their references, Fogg and Panczszyk instead openly cite their sources and find ways to modernize their ideas through technological developments. It’s here that they really shine.
Those Japanese-French postcards were rendered in chain dresses made by UV-printing sunsets and palm trees onto the metal. Fogg whipped out her phone to show a video of the printed chain arriving at the studio, mounted on a giant board, each strand peeled off by an Area team member and hand-soldered into a dress, top, or skirt. Madame Grès’s pleats were deconstructed into teal fringes that hung from a chandelier-like bodice. That look informed a knit sweater with crystal trim at the shoulders worn over the Ishioka leather pants that, actually, weren’t pants at all but leather stay-ups. And then came the hearts, gigantic bubbles of construction inCinderellablue and Kim Kardashian West neon green. The tiny chair bags are in collaboration with Myreality, and will surely be the least practical, most alluring accessory of the fall 2020 season.Will anyone wear these clothes? Are they beautiful or heinous? Do they make sense at all or are they too obvious? Area can be polarizing, but that’s what makes following along with Fogg and Panszczyk so enjoyable. They are true creatives that ask the big questions of themselves and their audience.
9 February 2020
“I get high on your memory,” purred a voice on the soundtrack of Area’s Spring 2020 show. It’s a funny thought for a brand that has been, with its slick lamé catsuits and spacey embossed tees, very much about the future of fashion. Maybe we should take it as a sign that our collective future is quite dark that Beckett Fogg and Piotrek Panszczyk decided to shine their light on the craftsmanship and couture shapes of the past so strongly this season.Notes of Cristóbal Balenciaga and Christian Dior were felt in pouf-backed dresses and one romantically quirky lavender bubble coat. Let’s call those cropped blazer and miniskirt suits the New New Look, a clever subversion of ladylike attire for the Area woman who’d rather show off her waist than have it nipped in by darted fabric. Some of the pair’s most inspiring and wondrous interpretations of couture craft were their metal cage dresses, rendered with trellis-like arches glimmering in golden crystals. Those pieces, an evolution of Area’s slinky crystal chain mail, are an apt synthesis of their themes here: a little retro, a little futuristic, a lot about being the star of the show no matter where you are.Fogg and Panszczyk’s seasonal research can take them to places far and wide, though. Multiculturalism, inclusivity, and diversity are the core values of Area, notions they have translated on the runway since the start of their brand. Here, they translated Area into dozens of languages and cut the translations into nameplate necklaces. Backstage, Panszczyk acknowledged that black culture of the American ’80s and ’90s was an inspiration, with the goal of breaking down boundaries and unifying the idea of Area into something from everyone, for everyone. The soundtrack chirped on “think positive.” Wish that it could be this easy.
8 September 2019
Six months ago,Areawas all about playfulness. This season, that flippant joy has given way to something more aggressive, more punk. Yes, tonight’s show was glitzy and fab-you-loussss, but beneath that purple-to-pink fur and those rainbow crystal earrings are layers and layers of meaning. What does it say? Post show, codesigner Beckett Fogg summed up her and her partner Piotrek Panszczyk’s mission as, “It’s about these dualities: How can they live not in contrast but in harmony?” They riffed on contrasts of color, silhouette, era, genre, ethnicity, femininity—you name it, they had a take it on it.The clash of it all made for a lively show, with guests wrestling over each other to photograph their favorite looks. It opened in mostly black and white, a basic palette for Fogg and Panszczyk to experiment with texture and treatment, like crystal-strewn cable knits that deconstruct into fringe trousers and apied de poule–inspired houndstooth that morphed into an A monogram. A ’60s couture theme ran throughout, with several references toAndré Courrèges’s Spage Age shapes at his own brand and at Balenciaga. Then came the text, cut out of silver plastic as dangling belts and printed on scarves made of found phrases that evoke protest. Soon apocalypse. Power play. “We have quotes in the collection that are quite heavy, intense, almost like a protest song,” began Panszczyk, “but do we really mean anything with it? Maybe not.” He went on to riff that maybe the customer is actually a hippie-dippie activist, or maybe she’s just wearing that Photoshop-printed tie-dye, itself a mutation of ’60s couture polka dots, because she thinks it makes for a good selfie. Meaning can be found anywhere, but there is also an inescapable meaninglessness to our contemporary world.There’s the rub. In attempting such a high-concept show, Fogg and Panszczyk became stuck, at places, in an echo chamber. Certain ideas felt so broad, like the trendy tie-dye, or so specific, like a one-off fluoro orange jumpsuit, that it was hard, as a viewer, to get one’s bearings, to make sense of it all. Maybe that’s the point. In its eclecticism and diversity, this collection felt like a big “F you” to the system, to the rules, to the right way of doing things. For a while in the recent past, Area listened to what other people wanted. This show was pure, unfiltered Fogg and Panszczyk, administered intravenously while Madonna sung “Shanti” over a sound system on a Wall Street promenade.
It was so surprisingly, sophisticatedly weird, you just had to smile.
10 February 2019
Area wins the award for most surprising collection muse: Libuše Niklová. Never heard of her? Most have not. Niklová was a Czech artist and inventor who created the first inflatable toys for children in the ’60s. Her designs are brightly colored and strangely shaped, like cats with long stretched-out bodies and curious-looking alligators. “We started thinking: What is important for us in fashion? I think as designers, in design in general, our core value is play. Playing is something so intellectual but also so pure,” said Piotrek Panszczyk, codesigner with Beckett Fogg. How else to describe their metal earrings—literally made by “inflating” a metal balloon until it expands into a Koons-ian shape—other than playful?But in the three years of Area, the duo has proved that they are not one-hit—or one-note—wonders. Fogg and Panszczyk’s Spring 2019 collection was their best yet, including everything from leather miniskirts to a shimmering kelly green ruched tube frock worn over bike shorts, without ever losing sight of their singular interstellar power-femme aesthetic. There were practical clothes (see Look 1’s crisp shirting), pop-star worthy performance apparel (the finale crystal dress, hand-soldered by Fogg herself), and even whimsy (like the sheer pink prairie dress smothered in crystals). Fogg explained that, after some soul-searching, they’ve defined their offering as occasionwear—and in the age of Instagram, everything is an occasion.What’s more is that the multiculturalism they have dabbled in for several seasons has come bubbling to the surface to delightful effect. The Area woman is a jet-setter, though not your typical one; her ideal journey is probably from Vegas to Venus. On this planet, Fogg and Panszczyk have found inspiration inBarazokumagazine, the first commercial Japanese gay magazine, asking a London-based artist to repaint a cover for a print. They set their show to Estonian soul music. Their logo knitwear, shot with Lurex, is ideal for plane travel, and their first collection of handbags, tiny handheld trunks covered in leather or crystals, were made in the same factory as Louis Vuitton’s trunks. If the LV motto is “the art of travel,” the Area one would be “the fun of travel,” that wherever you’re going, whoever you are, you should be having a great time. First stop is Area-land, where everyone is shiny, happy, and dressed to kill.
9 September 2018
Who would have guessed that in 2018 Area would be among fashion’s most referenced brands? When the label began in 2015, it was so slick, so skinny, and so sci-fi, its clothing seemed patently impossible. Today, its crystal fringe, oversize hoops, and metallic and Lurex fabrications are everywhere. Not to say everyone is copying Piotrek Panszczyk and Beckett Fogg; it’s more like their extremist version of luxury has become surprisingly popular . . . and maybe other designers don’t know their limits.Anyway, the Area duo honed in on a masculine-feminine thing this season, imagining a woman who was torn between the hard-tailored world of the Italian sartorialists and the avant-garde fashion of the Japanese. The animal prints of the ’30s and ’40s, too, provided ample fodder for the designers. In their seasonal mash-up, there were sharp blazers in pastel pink glitter worn without pants and bold-shoulder dresses with crystal trimming down the sleeves—like a track stripe for those who consider partying a workout. In a smart move, they replaced their much-used fox fur with faux fur this season, allowing them to make even more fun, fluffy stuff like shoes, shrugs, and—for the first time—bags. They also introduced an expanded knitwear offering, making a knit dress in graphic stripes that bounced and curved around the model’s body.Even with the iridescent jacket and the itty-bitty shiny red dress, this was a commercially minded collection through and through. That’s not a slight; Area has been wisely growing its retail presence and commercial influence. But perhaps, as everyone else mimics its ultra-sassy aesthetic, the brand could have pushed the envelope a teensy bit further. To go from all metallic leggings to just one pair is a big jump, after all. When everyone’s a glitter baby, Area might need to remind customers that it is the chief purveyor of Venusian glamour.
12 February 2018
One of the kicks of reviewing Area’s collections is trying to come up with words that describe Beckett Fogg and Piotrek Panszczyk’s eccentric vision.Voguehas called their seasonal muses disco Valkyries, downtown darlings, and retro-futuristic space angels, among other things. Let’s christen this season’s Area woman a multiculti glamour-puss with a soupçon of sass. She’s resplendent in squiggle-crystal sweats with a twist of Veruschka braids, insouciant in a tinsel-trimmed suit with matching earrings, and here to serve face in a peach turban and off-the-shoulder tunic.The diversity of the new offering can be chalked up to Fogg and Panszczyk’s recent inclusive turn. Now alongside their shimmery, embossed catsuits there’s also practical daywear for women of all sizes and styles. For Resort, they’ve doubled down on the athluxury-after-dark proposition, with leggings and sweats sitting beside bright pink silky separates and bias-cut wrap dresses with plunging fronts. The best piece award goes to a pearl-print button-down that is all kinds of business-casual catty.All this was dusted with a Middle Eastern flair. The region represents a big portion of Area’s business, but the aesthetic interpretation birthed some hit-or-miss decisions. The fez hats, for example, felt a bit dinky. Fogg and Panszczyk conceived the lookbook as a protest against Saudi Arabia’s now-repealed legislation that forbade women from driving. Political commentary is new ground for Area, and it’s something the label should continue to explore. The design sensibilities are expertly honed; now it’s time for the designers to define how their sexy, femme-fatale vision fits into contemporary society.
8 November 2017
The club kids have left the building! Okay, only sort of, but there is certainly a new flavor at Area. For Spring, the design duo Beckett Fogg and Piotrek Panszczyk are easing up on their super-skinny, shimmery partiers and focusing on the nine-to-five wardrobe of the Area woman. “It’s a new kind of sexiness,” they said backstage, speaking about the importance of daywear, diversity, and joy to this season’s offering. Their starting point was the Pompidou’s “Kollektsia!” exhibit of Russian art, which informed their electric palette of grass, royal purple, cherry red, and fuchsia—they wanted to be bright in a dark time, you see. But that was just one piece of the puzzle. There wereNight Porterhats, an enlarged strawberry print, bejeweled fringe hanging from shoes, and surreal reinterpretations of the Area logo done in crystal on tees and blouses. Leather was added, suiting was relaxed, and there was everything on the catwalk from slip dresses to power suits to some loose track pants just begging for a street styler to wear them. The models wore bright streaks of magenta blush high on their cheekbones and halos of loopy braids that, together with the clothes, made each one look like she might be a flight attendant on a trip to outer space. It was kooky in the best way, and the fact that the clothes were shown at the exact moment New York City entered its golden hour the rooftop of a Lower East Side high school only heightened the eclectic, glamorous spirit.This is all to say, the clothes were great. But there’s another element to Area that’s just as important. That’s Fogg and Panszczyk’s thoughtfulness and intent. They started to switch gears from angel-slut to power-babe vibes when they realized that their clothing was selling in droves to women of all ages, “15 to 60 to 35!” exclaimed Panszczyk, and all around the world, especially in the Middle East. On the runway today, was a look for every kind of woman, worn by women of all colors and creeds. The fact that they showed at the New Design High School meant that they could invite students to help usher guests to their seats. The kids’ excitement was palpable. While other American designers are heading abroad or making their shows smaller and more exclusive, Area is plugging away and ticking all the boxes to become the American fashion monolith of the future: They now make commercially viable daywear, are supporting young talent, and can put on a show with all the theatrics of the big guns.
Fogg and Panszczyk aren’t in a rush towards superstardom, but it will find them.
10 September 2017
“As a woman, what are you obsessed with?” So begins a piece of text by cultural historian Laura McLaws Helms that accompanied Area’s Fall 2017 show. The piece continues riffing on love, sex, and fashion as erotic obsessions, which was the jumping off point for designers Beckett Fogg and Piotrek Panszczyk this season. The most obvious interpretations of these sexual themes were done in crystal, either as thong knickers worn over pants or as diamanté nipples and S-curve appliqués down the torsos of bias-cut dresses. A caramel silk received Area’s signature embossing treatment, making it all the more slinky and visually reminiscent of an ostrich Hermès Birkin bag—“Another obsession!” said Fogg and Panszczyk before the show. Still runway photos won’t do these things justice; you need to see the models strutting by on 5-inch platforms while an a capella version of Aaliyah’s “Rock The Boat” echoes around the reportedly haunted Hotel Wolcott Ballroom to really see the clothes as intended. Or maybe a lookbook of Charlotte Wales’s photos would do, although we can’t say for sure. The pair ditched the lookbooks this season in favor of an erotically charged live moment.What does translate well is the brand’s embossed tee printed with the phrase “J’aime Drama.” That wasn’t the only more commercial trend Fogg and Panszczyk hit on this season. Pre-show, the pair revealed that the idea of obsession had driven them to do some light market research on their friends, polling them about their shopping habits, most-loved pieces, and high fashion fetishes. They put the results in a spreadsheet, studied it, and came to the conclusion that no two fashion lovers want the same things. So, instead of serving up only the retro-futuristic Space Angel vibes they’ve executed so well in the past, the pair expanded into jeans (wide leg and embossed, obviously), slip dresses, sweatshirts, and logo tees—the whole shebang. In total, the run of show was lighter on the kind of directional fashion we’ve come to expect from Area since its launch in 2013, but where it lacked that capital-F fashion spirit, it made up for it in heart. You have to commend Fogg and Panszczyk for sending out clothing that can be worn not only by the hyper-lithe Lauren de Graaf (as in the past), but also by women of every size and shape.The first stanza of Helms’s text adds this to the list of a woman’s obsessions: “Liberty, freedom / A peaceful way of life.
” In growing their commercial offerings, Fogg and Panszczyk will welcome in a new, more diverse group of cool kids to Area and its fashionable, freaky freedoms—and maybe find more financial freedom themselves to continue executing their singular vision. If all goes right, it will be a win on every count.
12 February 2017
OnArea’swatch, all things glitz and high gloss are vital. For Spring, Beckett Fogg and Piotrek Panszczyk plumbed the depths ofVoguedating from the 1960s up to 2003 (their favorite!). Finalists of this year’s CFDA/VogueFashion Fund, the pair has also been rounding out their world, this season calling out the more deliciously decadent facets of New York in the ’60s and Paris in the ’80s. What’s more, the brand debuted a series of Lucite accessories flecked with suspended glitter: ice cube–size rings, hoop earrings, and even ultra-fly chopsticks for hair, all analogous in every way to the offbeat glamour of its ready-to-wear propositions.To wit: If the words “Dalmatian silk twill long polo dress” aren’t heavenly enough, then a) I stand, personally, uncertain as to what is, and b) add “black lamé heeled bow loafers” to the end of that phrase and reconsider. The duo fashioned printed and rhinestone-dappled chiffons and more in a pattern inspired by Marc Jacobs’s beloved dog Tiger (the pre–social media predecessor of Neville); elsewhere, an actual crystal tiger stripe turned up splashed across a gorgeous vest and trouser set. But what would the brand’s army of disco Valkyries be without some of the signatures that have earned it its rapidly ascendant profile? A croc-skin version of the trademark Area embossing reemerged here as a gloriously unreal, acid green gown and matching purse. Likewise, Resort’s printed trompe l’oeil bows morphed into intarsias on styles, including a heavenly peach silk track pant and matching jacket, both stitched with subtle, undulating lengths of “ribbon.” Arguably the season’s most notable development of all, though? During today’s presentation, Area debuted its e-commerce site, featuring a see-now-buy-now selection of Spring’s killer jewelry.
10 September 2016
After hanging close to the studio since she first appeared, theAreasiren emerged into the world this season—namely onto a boat on the Hudson where Resort’s lookbook was lensed. “She has a bag!” designer Piotrek Panszczyk said at a preview. If the more editorial, high-glam qualities of Area’s aesthetic have perhaps denied them the widespread commendations that the brand deserves (someone, get them onto those awards shortlists!), then their Resort offering left little doubt that Panszczyk and codesigner Beckett Fogg are more than capable of serving up clothes easily worn by a whole lot of men and women.They haven’t lost sight of their sheeny, disco-spiked aesthetics, but this new lineup made clear the full extent of Area’s versatility. The embossed lamés remained, as appealing as ever, but here the pair washed them after, leaving behind only the damage from the braille-like stamping. Elsewhere were the most notable forays into print the label’s seen yet: trompe l’oeil ribbons and swathes of fabric that formed “bandeaus” on maxi dresses, cinched skirt waists, and rippled serpentine down the front of a crisp shirtdress—the tension between artifice and reality remains of perennial interest to the designers. And if those styles recalled the wit of Bill Blass at the height of his powers, it was no accident. The duo had been revisiting the masters of American sportswear; the reference was palpable in styles like a lustrous silk shirtdress that Fogg sported, or the slim, zip-front skirt in embossed light denim. Indeed, Area’s is the most compelling riff on classically “Resort” sensibilities that this writer’s seen all season long.Back to their muse’s aforementioned bag: Among a handful of exciting things percolating for the brand in the months to come, here they debuted an impeccably cool bag in two sizes—glittering rhinestone strap optional . . . and highly encouraged.
8 June 2016
Now is the time for fantasia—particularly when it’s in the hands ofAreadesigners Beckett Fogg and Piotrek Panszczyk. “For Pre-Fall we touched on reality a lot,” Panszczyk offered at yesterday’s jam-packed presentation. “Now we tried to pull all those key parts, like the hydrophobic suiting, and make them a bit more fantasy again.” The lately minted downtown darlings zeroed in on the notion of “hardcore femininity” in every sense of the phrase: Per Panszczyk, it means “femme on boys, but also even hyper-feminine, hypersexual.” You’d be hard-pressed to find in fashion today a more compelling or cooler take on rituals of womanliness. For Spring, it was pools of makeup and nail lacquer; this time around, it was glittering, gem-encrusted manicures. After proposing plenty of sparkle in Lurex and stones for several seasons, Fall brought an on-the-books, official collaboration with Swarovski, who lent their signature rocks to garments and styling pieces like glam body harnesses.There’s a lot to be said for the consistency of Area’s vision. They’ve pioneered a vocabulary of specific embossing techniques, of lamé and alternately fitted and flaring silhouettes—if you’re looking at an Area piece, you know it. Still, there was plenty of newness to be found here: the addition of a hyper-saturated, almost lurid fuchsia to the palette of disco pastels, as well as confectionary uses of fur. One stonewashed denim parka lined in powder-pink fox—donned by a male model—was a true showstopper, while a macro-bra top in that same fur seems predestined for a Rihanna moment. Even if you whittled the lineup down solely to its vegan wares, it would be a tall order for anyone to deny the beauty of it.
12 February 2016
Areadesigners Beckett Fogg and Piotrek Panszczyk often serve as their own fit models, and this season, they “market researched [their] own closets,” as Fogg put it. The intensely personal, process-driven quality of their clothing is one of the things that has made Area notable from the wordgo. But for their debut Pre-Fall collection, they set about opening up their world a bit more, distilling that vernacular into its most wearable essence. If Spring’s luminous, “makeup”-smeared satin gowns are just the thing for after-hours, then this season’s offering finds Fogg and Panszczyk embracing the everyday. It’s a savvy move, given that retail interest in the line has ramped up (Lane Crawford just confirmed its order for Pre-Fall).As Fogg noted, the pair started in their own wardrobes, looking at their most-worn and loved garments and the codes that turned up time and time again. The shape of Panszczyk’s old German parka, for example, came to life in a midnight blue tech satin, trimmed in fur and embossed with the Braille-like pattern that is Area’s signature. And just when you thought denim had been embellished every which way under the sun, here was the coolest pair we’ve seen in a while: light-washed, punched all over in that same pattern, and teamed with a matching cropped peacoat. The jeans will be available both coated (for those who would like to keep them relatively unscathed) and uncoated; as with Japanese boro textiles, the latter embraces the imperfections of washings and daily wear.However busy Area is distilling its ethos, there was newness to be had as well. Case in point: a terrific hydrophobic wool blend that showed up in a ruffle-sleeved button-down and basketball shorts and that will repel any liquid you throw at it—from red wine to green juice. Elsewhere, new patterns came to the fore, like classic croc (particularly gorgeous on a peachy silk slip dress), and an old-school embossing plate used in the ’50s to create the flourishes on Western saddles. There was sparkle here, too. When it’s time to amp up the wattage, customers can pop on a styling piece such as lamé chaps or a crystal garter—infinitely more wearable propositions than they might sound on paper, and just another reason Area is one of New York’s most exciting young brands today.
11 December 2015
It may be the label’s first season with a slot on theNew York Fashion Weekshow roster, but Area sure knows how to make an entrance. The brainchild ofBeckett FoggandPiotrek Panszczyk, today the brand took over an airy room at The Standard and set their vision to life with an uncanny ’70s beauty ad writ large.Makeup was, in fact, Spring’s précis, as seen through the lens of some kind of gauzy, disco daydream. Doe-eyed, faintly dazed-looking models milled around vanity tables; silk dresses came encrusted with smudges of silvery glitter and glossy nude “foundation” smears, and baroque slippers with Perspex heels were . . . just plainly beautiful. Glitter or no, chrome’s got to shine too, so the designers whipped up the blush tire-rim print seen on a textured cream trench. Elsewhere they proposed plunging, wrap-front minis and lithe maxi dresses befitting Michelle Pfeiffer inScarface: one of the iridescent mesh gowns would look great on the red carpet.The spare clothes that Fogg and Panszczyk (alums ofCalvin Klein CollectionandEmanuel Ungaro, respectively) create, and the Braille-like embossing that has been their signature since the brand’s 2013 inception, resulted in a generally sporty, lean aesthetic. But this outing was one that showed a new dimension.Opening Ceremonywas an early retail coup for the brand: After today, other tastemakers are sure to follow suit.
11 September 2015