Commission (Q2824)
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Commission is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Commission |
Commission is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
Commission’s Dylan Cao and Jin Kay took a break last season in order to align themselves with the menswear calendar. This kind of reset brought them back to a familiar question they’ve been investigating for a number of years now: What is Americanness, specifically within the context of being an immigrant? They were “looking at first generations that came here before us, in the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s, and how they tried to assimilate, whether by dressing up using elements of American preppiness or wearing a 9-to-5 suit 24/7 to show that they’re ‘excellent,’” Cao explained in their Midtown studio.Many of the classic signifiers of American sportswear are present in the collection, just distorted through the designers’ singular lens. Polo shirts and zip-up hoodies are cut at an angle so they pull and drape to one side when worn; it is a subtle effect that reads not as deconstructed or reworked but as a regular piece of clothing that the wearer simply needs to straighten out—except of course there is no straightening to be done. A T-shirt designed to be worn inside out and backward had a label that readEXCELLENT CLASSICS / IMPORTED VISION.In the past the Commission silhouette has been oversized, but this season everything is coming back close to the body—so close, in fact, that their button-down shirts and shirtdresses are scrunched up, with the buttons seemingly pulling from opposite sides as if they were too small and need to be forced to fit together. Elsewhere, a tailored jacket has been turned into a skirt, with the jacket’s shoulder padding—sans sleeves—left exposed, becoming a kind of peplum in the process. Knits with their signature slits at the chest have been replaced with a cutout at the back. This is more discreet but also allows for the pieces to be worn in a different way, like they’ve been laid flat on top of the body—as if the wearer is trying Americanness on for size, not entirely sure it fits.
19 June 2024
“I think normally when you talk about a spring collection, it’s about this idea of traveling and the beach,” said Commission’s Dylan Cao during a recent appointment at the label’s Garment District studio. “And we just stayed here, so we thought, We’re going to work on this collection, why don’t we talk about coming back from vacation?” He added, “It’s about going back to reality a little bit when the fun is over.”Thankfully the fun wasn’t over when it came to the clothes, which had a tongue-in-cheek attitude, all slightly askew in different ways. “When you travel, sometimes you bring something that doesn’t quite fit you well,” said cofounder Jin Kay, “so some garments were designed oversized, and then if you look closely, they’re pinched and snipped into a smaller fit.” A simple white cotton spaghetti-strap slip dress “that feels like paper” had a big dart running across the body—with the excess fabric on the outside like a paper plane—while another gray shift dress had pinched shoulders and gathers on the front, as if the wearer pulled up the hem of a dress that was too long and just stitched it in a few places right before heading out the door.One of the things you can always count on with a Commission collection is a great take on the classic button-down shirt. For spring, there were two, which took on the slightly off-fit thing in different ways. One check shirt built off the sort of too-small style developed last season, with the buttons curving around the body and budging in different places; the plaid on each front panel ran at different angles—one straight and one on the bias—which added just a hint of Rei Kawakubo–esque deconstruction. Another shirt was much subtler in its approach but no less effective in its execution: One side was fully longer than the other, and the back was completely shifted to the side, as if you just threw the shirt on as you were going out and never bothered to straighten it out. “Our patternmaker really hates us for this one,” Cao added, laughing. Their oversized Rider shirt, which has become a bit of a cult classic, at least on the streets of New York, was fantastically reimagined as a suede overshirt for the new season.Because the designers kept the collection small, they experimented with new materials, like a “trash bag–looking nylon” and a coated lace, which was used to great effect on simple slip dresses.
That piece, like everything else Commission does, allowed the focus to remain on the fantastic way they cut and fit their clothes.
15 September 2023
This is Commission’s 10th collection. It’s a mini-milestone that had Dylan Cao and Jin Kay in a contemplative mood. “This is really a nod to the 10 and 15 years Jin and I have been here, and how much the city has become ingrained in our creative language,” Cao explained at their midtown studio. “Tourists, bankers, skaters, moms, dads, have always been in our design language, but before it was more about our parents and how people dressed in Asia in the past.” He added, “Now, we want to speak more of our version of that, which is like what we see now.” To that end, they continued to explore sliced knitwear and elaborated on the cutaway shape of jackets and button-down shirts from last season, bringing the same idea to skirts, with an extra-wide slit cut in the front, exposing a silk jacquard “slip” underneath.The designers also cited their studio’s proximity to Times Square—and its cast of characters—as well as what their friends are wearing as inspiration. “It’s comfort and a little bit of chaos,” Cao said, which might also be a great way to sum up the Commision aesthetic. “Our friends would wear a pencil skirt with a puffer jacket to go somewhere, something very practical, but it’s meshing up all their wardrobe together,” Kay said. “I think that’s the kind of modern way of dressing.” And so they bulked up their track jackets to become puffers (a real NYC staple) and added rounded shoulders. The result is a piece that seamlessly toes the line between “basic” and “directional”—a Commission sweetspot. A proper water resistant canvas trench could be buttoned up a myriad of ways; a mid-length leather trench could also be worn as a cape. Cao and Kay have a penchant for oversized silhouettes, exact tailoring, playful and unexpected details (are those zip-off pants? No they are just regular pants with a hem detail at the knee).Their friends also like to wear t-shirts under slip dresses, and so they combined them into one piece. Elsewhere, a skirt was constructed to look like it was falling off the hips, “exposing” the lining underneath. It was paired with a gray hoodie. The idea was also expanded into a strapless dress, with the bust taking on the details of a waistband, and the bodice turned into a corset. It certainly fit the “little bit of chaos” description—in the best possible way.
17 February 2023
Few designers encapsulate the actual emotions they are feeling when they are designing a collection and translate them into garments quite like Commission’s design duo Dylan Cao and Jin Kay (Huy Luong is no longer with the label). Spring was inspired by “an intense period of changes for us in our personal lives,” said Cao. “We find the change romantic but also subversive in its unpredictability.”That unpredictability showed up in twisted seam details in almost every garment: in the red track-inspired pants that open the look book; in the way jackets and shirts were cut to purposefully stay half open when worn (not a styling trick for the look book, with binder clips on the garments!); in jersey tanks and silk dresses; and in hoodies that were devoid of their usual frumpiness. The twisted seams were not just details that denote a topsy-turvy world, but they engaged the fit and silhouette of the clothes on the body, like the oversized button-down shirt cut with a lower collar so that it hung forward on the body.Meanwhile, inside-out details in trousers especially served a healthy dose of subversiveness, like an inside-out fly, or a waistband laid the wrong way. Continuing Commission’s investigation and deconstruction of typical all-American sportswear, an intricately knit argyle sweater was constructed wrong-side out and then patchworked and embroidered with contrasting bouclé yarn. Sporty mesh used for soccer jerseys was embroidered in asymmetrical stripes for an unexpected dressed-up look.“There are other elements of youth culture that we touch upon, like rave culture and cyber goth and even Harajuku,” said Cao. You could see hints of those subcultures in certain aspects of the fit or the styling—like the extra-wide jeans made from raw denim or the extra-short skirts that dominated the womenswear offerings—but Commission’s clothes are always grounded in real life, made for adults who do not wish to play dress-up in the fits of their youth but also aren’t trying to forget where they came from.A white dress with twisted fabric details and ruffles galore was built upon a power mesh base that would hold its wearer in, while appearing to be falling off the body. Accessorized with two black leather belts, it would make a fine wedding dress for those who don’t wish to abandon their edgy aesthetic on their big day in favor of sweetheart necklaces or pearl embellishments.
It isn’t a coincidence that Kay and Cao have been approached to design wedding dresses a few times. “Women don’t want a wedding dress; they just want a cool dress,” said Cao. Although, of course, that could also explain why their whole approach works so well. Men, women, and nonbinary folks alike just want to wear cool clothes that say something about themselves and the experiences they’ve lived through, and at Commission, Kay and Cao always deliver.
21 September 2022
Commission is a brand about garments, not gimmicks. While designers Dylan Cao, Jin Kay, and Huy Luong do source references the old-school way and tend to stick to seasonal themes, their inspirations tend towards the abstract. For fall 2022, the trio was thinking about non-American perspectives on America (all three designers were born and raised in Asia) and classic American fashion.Jeans, leather pants, Western belt buckles, and star-patched tees are the most obvious elements of Americana here. Look deeper than the hand-distressed unisex leather jacket, and you’ll find lush “cloud knits,” sporty tracksuits with blouson tops, trad office shirting with underbreast cut-outs, and a brown wool skirt suit with a schoolgirl vest inset into the blazer. A slash motif, which could read as a little try-hard, worked mostly well, exposing an ab, a clavicle, or a sliver of forearm.“It’s about an eclectic combo,” said Cao, walking through the collection. Evocative layering made the brand’s separates look even more viable—especially in an asymmetric dress over pants look. The moment the designers posted a lookbook image it was swiftly consumed by social media, followers chiming in with “Aaaaaaaah!” and cascades of flame emojis. Amidst the stunts and drama of NYFW, this simple showroom appointment with these simple and straightforward clothes feels even more necessary.
18 February 2022
The emotion that charges through Commission’s collections can sometimes be hidden in their clean, elegant imagery. The trio of designers behind the brand, Dylan Cao, Jin Kay, and Huy Luong, are thoughtful pragmatists whose lookbooks and other projects—like a beautiful book of portraits of Asian men that went on sale this summer to raise money for the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund and Apex For Youth—have a forthright honesty to them that to new eyes may not always read as passionate. So know that under the precision cuts and elegant lines, what Cao, Kay, and Luong have put forth for spring 2022 is charged with emotion.In their Garment District studio, the trio described spring as a continuation of ’70s themes started for fall. But rather than continue the myopia Western fashion has about the decade—all spiritual awakenings, crochet tops, and hippie jeans—the designers connected Western appropriations of Eastern philosophy and religion to what was happening in their parents’ lives in Korea and Vietnam at the time. “In the East the reality was more grim,” said Cao. “In Vietnam my family was picking up the pieces after the war; in Korea they were recovering from a civil war.”Do the voluminous ruffled skirts evoke the prairie styles of Woodstock or a beautiful heirloom tattered by war? The designers bridged the two realities of the 1970s with their signature elegance: Seams on mid-length dresses are on the outside and edges are left raw, bodysuits are half-and-half conflicting florals, and coats are slashed open at back to reveal a cascade of ruffles. Cute new things, inspired by school uniforms, are in the mix for guys, such as gym-style shorts and blazers missing a top button inspired by a tradition in Korea and Japan where girls take a button from the jackets of boys they like. Knit bralettes and sexy draped jersey dresses add a sauciness to the womenswear. As their fit model tries on outfits she imagines where she would wear them: to dinner, to a date, post-divorce. She wouldn’t have to imagine too hard: Just days later some of New York’s chicest women were at a Nordstrom event in their full Commission looks. Were the brand in The Met’s emotional new show—ahem—the word assigned to their piece would surely becommunity.
24 September 2021
The line between boring clothes and beautiful ones is fine. Is a beige blazer the epitome of elegance and refinement or is it a total snooze? What about a plaid midi-skirt? Or a black trench? The make-or-break details that will set a gorgeous wide-leg trouser apart from its lesser peers can be so small you have to squint in person to see them. Dylan Cao, Jin Kay, and Huy Luong obsess over this stuff, toying with seams, lapels, stitching, and silhouette for weeks on end at their brand Commission. Their fall 2021 collection is a tour de force of tailoring, with drop-waist silk Deco dresses, low-front check blazers with slightly forward shoulders, smock tops with adjustable sleeves, and midi pleated skirts in a fox and hare pattern hand-drawn by Kay.The collection looks rich, luxuriant, and polished—which is where the trio’s cleverness comes in. Cao explained they found inspiration in the tailor shops his mother would visit in Vietnam during the ’70s. She would go, he explained, with Western catalogues and have business suits and skirt sets custom made to emulate the trends abroad. (It was always sets, he stressed, never a wafty sundress.) The trend at the time in Vietnam was to look as put-together as a businesswoman walking down Madison Avenue, playing with notions of power and wealth along the way. So the giant faux-fur coat and the pearly trench that appear in Commission’s fall collection are send-ups of style and social class. The plaid here is an oblique reference to the way Burberry’s signature tartan invaded culture in the ’90s and ’00s, spawning a world of knockoffs. Even the hand-drawn print is supposed to look like the thing you would find at an English heritage brand, but instead it comes from a trio of young Asian designers.Subversion without substance never works, but Cao, Kay, and Luong back up their big ideas with strong silhouettes and a gentle color palette. The additions of a new knit dress and a second bag shape will increase the reach of their message this season.
15 June 2021
Customers have been asking Commission’s Dylan Cao, Jin Kay, and Huy Luong to produce menswear since their first women’s collection in 2018. The idea makes sense: The trio founded their brand with their mothers’ ’80s and ’90s office attire as inspiration. Surely their dads had great style too?But Cao, Kay, and Luong are not ones to hasten into a project. They took years to fully understand the shape of the Commission man. He’s not so much a representation of their own fathers as he is a witty remembrance of Asian style in the ’70s.From their studio in the garment district—one of the first in-person appointments in more than a year’s time for this critic—the designers explained that after polling some friends, they found that dad style was pretty homogeneous across Vietnam and Korea, where they grew up, and other countries in Asia. The knit polo shirt tucked into trousers, the boxy “Communist suit,” and the small satchel bag are all styles etched into their memories—fashion trends that transcend any notion of business attire and verge into everyday wear. They’ve updated these hero pieces for a new generation of guys looking for a tailored, slick look.Commission’s best trait is being able to see the past without nostalgia. Rather than homages to what was, the trio is cutting a new line that builds upon their shared history. That Communist suit has a dropped lapel for a more modern shape. They’ve added in a bit of sex appeal in a plunge-front blouse and a rose-colored brushed cashmere sweater and stole. The perfectly cut trousers are not inspired by any dadwear but by the Dickies the designers often wear to work. It’s all styled very buttoned-up in the look book, which was photographed by Luong, but there’s a playful perversion lurking underneath. You know that the Commission guy is up for a fun time.
8 June 2021
“COVID has changed everything,” said Commission’s Dylan Cao over a Zoom call. Cao, who designs the brand he founded with Huy Luong and Jin Kay in 2018, wasn’t kidding. The trio received a small-business loan that facilitated a move to a garment-district studio, and they have also shifted to a see-now-buy-now model while reevaluating the entire premise of their brand. When the trio started Commission fresh out of Parsons, they focused on making clothing to honor their mothers’ style in the late 1980s and ’90s. Their first several seasons offered nostalgic officewear for a modern age, fusing acidy colors againstWorking Girl–esque shapes. For spring 2021, the designers have looked further, finding inspiration in all the women around them who helped them find success in the rough days of the pandemic.Bringing a more female energy into their design process has yielded their most luxurious and streamlined collection yet. Their strength is being able to offer something that reads as minimal—lean beige coats, pink skirts, and geometric-print tops—but is imbued with a maximalist sense of joy and self-expression. Commission’s spring 2021 coats have a funny strip of grosgrain along the hem; pencil skirts are double layered with a too-long slip underneath; and those long-sleeve tops come with thumb holes to better mimic the sunblock tops they are inspired by. An expanded knitwear offering of oversized polos and crochet bralettes accentuates comfort without falling into the cozy-core traps of 2020 and 2021. Behind each model in their look book is a giant doily scrunchie, radiating a pop of white or rose like a halo and adding a sense of delight and whimsy. They would be great for Zoom calls and for party life once we rev back into action.
26 February 2021