Brandon Maxwell (Q3948)
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Brandon Maxwell is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Brandon Maxwell |
Brandon Maxwell is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
Next year, Brandon Maxwell’s eponymous label will turn 10—an accomplishment at any time, but especially so in ours, with independent designers facing tough odds—and he’s been looking back at his earliest collections to see what resonates a decade later. He was a minimalist at the start, and he’s a minimalist now, but the attitude of this collection is a long way from his circa 2015 beginning.Swapping styling gigs for the design studio, his early aesthetic was dressed up—way up. Lady Gaga, his client, was in his front row at his first show. Here, he de-emphasized the glamour that’s been associated with his work “in service of getting to something real, of coming down to reality,” he explained in his Flatiron showroom.The collection’s starting point was a blouson-y faded denim jacket. Though it’s styled over a long chiffon dress in the picture, in real life, he expects his clients to wear it with the low-waisted, dropped crotch khakis that turn up later in the lookbook. With their snap-front waistband, they’re as casual as any pants as he’s shown, and they make a good complement for an asymmetric ribbed black t-shirt, with rhodium hardware at one of its draped shoulders. He did similar “knots” in 18-karat gold plate, as well as custom button in the shape of mini macaroons.In his search for “something more casual and easy,” his latest runway collection leaned a shade too undone; this one struck a finer balance. There were pinstripes cut into a nipped waist little jacket and trousers, and pinstripes draped on the bias for an off-the-shoulder dress. A bomber in soft nappa leather and a “biker jacket” cardigan in lofty ribbed cashmere. And organza separates shot through with metal thread for a crushed texture that underscored their ease. “It has to evolve,” he said, “because I’ve evolved.”
9 December 2024
Pop-up shops for Free Assembly and Scoop NYC, the two labels that Brandon Maxwell designs for Walmart, will open for business this weekend in the Meatpacking District building where his show was held. Guests who didn’t have to scoot off to another event on this busy first official day of New York Fashion Week were invited to linger and discover the ways in which Maxwell has been elevating the box store’s fashion offering.At his eponymous brand, he’s rounding the corner on 10 years, and he’s in an exploratory phase, not quite trying on a new identity but stripping away the exuberance that once defined him in favor of a sexy kind of minimalism. The fluttery hem peeking from the bottom of the first look’s draped top, though the detail reappeared several times throughout the collection, was a bit of a feint. This was Maxwell at his most stripped back, layering body-conscious ribbed knits, using see-through neoprene for tailored pantsuits, and exposing midriffs above skirts.“I’ve softly unraveled the brand DNA to create garments that foster a sense of nonchalance,” he wrote in his show notes, calling it “a new proposition for our customer.” The thing is, the knit tank dresses that were peeled off the shoulders and worn as skirts were a shade too nonchalant; ditto the sheer skirts barely clinging to hips. A pink plunge-front dress lacked the precision of his usual work.Though his star rose on the event dresses he did for Lady Gaga, Maxwell has a knack for all-American sportswear. It has come in and out of focus over his decade in business. Here, it took the form of barn jackets with extra volume in the back and a touch of his native Texas twang that looked cool and confident. Backstage, Maxwell said he wanted to put them on every look; that’s not surprising, as they’re the kind of proposition a customer could really take seriously.
6 September 2024
The first look in Brandon Maxwell’s resort collection is a black pantsuit, streamlined and sleek in his familiar fashion, save for the details. The jacket’s brass buttons were hand-hammered by Maxwell himself for a ripply three-dimensional texture and the brass belt buckle was hand-poured. No two buttons or belt buckles will be the same. His aesthetic may be minimal, but he pours his heart and soul into his work.Navigating personal losses, his recent collections have been reserved and controlled. “There wasn’t a ton of whimsy,” he explained at a showroom visit. But this season marks a turning point. “I came back sensory focused and craft focused, thinking about items.”He worked with the knitwear expert Ryan Roche on this season’s knits, which range from matching clingy ribbed top and skirt sets to chunky marinière striped polo necks, not pictured in the lookbook but in evidence in the showroom. He also has some terrific outerwear in the vein of American sportswear greats Ralph Lauren and Michael Kors, including a classic peacoat and cropped gabardine trench, and a more extroverted cotton silk coat with a crinkly metallic finish. If and when those designers start thinking about succession plans, Maxwell should be in contention.But the real news here was the whimsy. It came in the form of shirts, skirts, and dresses inlaid with peekaboo organza flowers decorated with Swarovski crystals. The shirt in particular had a real Texas twang. He hinted that a sense of play will continue into his spring 2025 collection. “There’s a lesson in not pulling back,” he said. “You just have to keep moving, and try to have fun.”
10 June 2024
Brandon Maxwell swapped a tiny Chinatown gallery space last season for the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s cavernous Duggal Greenhouse today. Putting those Walmart dollars to work, maybe? The designer was named creative director at the big-box retailer in 2021 for his firm handle on all-American sportswear. In his runway collections lately, Maxwell has emphasized the fancier end of his repertoire, possibly to build distinctions between his two places of business, but this collection demonstrated his range—and his roots.Though he often talks about his Texas upbringing, in years of putting on shows he’s never sent anything down his runways like the waxed cotton barn jacket and coats that appeared on this one. He tweaked the jacket’s proportions so it flared at the hem in a subtle A-line. It’s a welcome addition to his repertoire, and it would look as good with his trouser jeans as it did with the matching circle skirt he paired it with.Prints have been another rarity on his runways; he tends to like a head-to-toe color or monochrome, but he dipped his toe in here. The motifs were subtle: an aspen leaf and a barely perceptible striation pattern, that he said were inspired by a trip to the southwest, turned up on a dress layered underneath a narrow cardigan coat and a sleeveless midi-length sheath. “I’m not someone who usually designs to a theme, and this sounds kind of woo-woo,” he said, “but in nature there are fires, there are droughts, there’s rain, and ultimately it lives on and becomes more beautiful. I came back lighter.”He made that feeling manifest in his emphasis on knitwear and soft constructions. A knit day dress was engineered to look like a shawl had been draped over its shoulders with it ends tied at the chest (in fact, it was all one piece), and for evening, he proposed a sleeveless knit polo dress with a swingy hem, a hunk of pyrite clasping its deep, buttonless placket. Soft doesn’t mean simple or banal. The show’s opening look, a white halterneck gown, was open at the side, revealing its three layers of silk. “It started very tight, but I ripped the seams at the shoulders, ripped the seams at the waist.” Soft, in Maxwell’s hands, isn’t safe or banal.
14 February 2024
Brandon Maxwell has been buffing and polishing his unique selling proposition over the last few seasons—getting at what is essential about what he does. This comes across in his clothes and the way he talks about them. At a showroom appointment he described the process as a brand renovation. “It’s not about knocking down the house, but I’m updating my sensibility to reflect where I am now.” By way of example, he pointed to several pieces in his new pre-fall that riff on from collections dating all the way back to his 2015 beginnings. The creamy top in look 2, for example, now comes in soft bias-cut silk, where early on he did it in a heavier fabric he now deems “impossible.” As for the black elegantly cowl-necked dress in look 19, in its previous life it was lime green and backless.To extend the house metaphor, dramatic minimalism is a good description of Maxwell’s decorating style. Even with a fully covered back, the cowl neck number is a real looker. Also eye-grabbing was the lookbook-opening one-shoulder dress with an asymmetrical drape across the bodice. Though the effect is sensually streamlined, it should not be mistaken for simple. Getting the drape right took several dozen tries, Maxwell said. While he lavished a lot of attention on evening wear, he didn’t neglect tailoring. A side-buttoning black jacket with popped lapels looked smart with a maxi skirt in pleated georgette.
8 December 2023
You hate to say it, but there’s been a lot that’s looked derivative on the New York runways this week. So what a treat it was to see Brandon Maxwell’s show this morning. Maxwell had scaled down dramatically from recent seasons. His invite read: “The show will be an intimate gathering of Brandon’s family, friends, and close brand supporters, and we would love for you to join us,” and for once a PR hadn’t misused the wordintimate. There were seats for just over 100 people.This wasn’t a smaller venue, smaller ambitions kind of situation. It’s just that Maxwell has learned to know himself—knows what he likes, what he’s good at, and what his clients want from him. It starts with tailoring of the streamlined, but not boring, variety. Smartly cut jackets came with spliced sleeves so they can be worn like capes; Maxwell paired them with flowing maxiskirts for a sort of fresh alternative to black tie. Other more traditionally tailored jackets were accompanied by ripped and faded jeans, the way you’d see them in real life on the street.Backstage afterward, he said, “When I look at the collection, it’s this constant push and pull between freedom and restraint.” Freedom came out on top. It was a shift from Maxwell’s show in February, which was much more structured and, in retrospect, looks quite buttoned up, even bulky at times. Here, the key silhouette was a midi-dress, which was fitted through the body to a dropped waist, then fluid from the hips to the hem. They were cut in stretch linen embroidered with gradated paillettes and in sheer knits with soft fringing at the sleeve openings. Sensual is the word that comes to mind.At a resort appointment in June, Maxwell said something that held true today. “Lately, to be considered ‘design,’ it’s had to be a lot. That doesn’t interest me.” This was Maxwell at his most minimal, and it was convincing.
12 September 2023
Despite recent-ish attempts at the contrary, Brandon Maxwell has come around to the idea that he’s a minimalist and he’s sticking with it. Butquiet luxury, the fashion code word du jour, is the wrong way to put it. Maxwell’s clothes are plenty luxurious—he pointed out that 95% of the fabrics are Italian—but they’re not quiet. Rather, they’re sexy in a streamlined, aerodynamic way.“Lately,” he said, indicating the way fashion is consumed on social media, “to be considered ‘design,’ it’s had to be a lot. That doesn’t interest me.” The first way he simplified things for resort is with his palette. There’s but two flashes of bright color, a tomato-y orange knit tank dress and another longer, narrow tank style in yellow, with a matching thick-ribbed sweater tossed over the shoulders. The rest of the collection is black and white, which lends it a uniform feel that’s intentional.“There’s so much going on in my life,” Maxwell said, “I just prefer black and white.” He was referring to the press ramp-up to season 20 ofProject Runway, where he’s a judge, and to his side project with Walmart, but a reduced color scheme is a client friendly move, too—it makes mixing and matching easier. In a creamy shade of white, that same thick-ribbed sweater would work just as easily with Maxwell’s jeans, which he cut with a dropped yoke, for a shapely silhouette.The waist was an area of interest for him this season. Many of the looks are styled with cast metal belts, while others are punctuated with glazed leather belts with a molded curving shape that echoes the dropped yoke of those jeans. He also added a draped waistband to a long narrow skirt with a high center slit. And if you really want sexy, he also did a stretch jersey tank dress with peekaboo cut-outs up both sides.
9 June 2023
On the downward slope of New York’s six-day fashion week, trends are coming into focus. While there are designers still chasing virality, another camp has turned its back on that. Brandon Maxwell has architected his fair share of Instagrammable moments—Lady Gaga’s multiple red carpet wardrobe changes at the 2019 Met Gala being the most famous and memorable—but he’s part of a significant NYC contingent emphasizing wearability and wardrobe building. Their focus is on grown-up tailoring in neutral colors with minimum embellishments. You could call them the new American minimalists.Maxwell said he went back to the beginning for this collection, picking out a bell sleeve peplum top that he felt was ripe for revival. In that first collection he cut it in what he described today as a “cumbersome” crepe; this time around, with half a dozen years under his belt, he used an alpaca wool stretch knit that follows the contours of the body. “It was about taking stock of who I am and asking ‘what can I do better?’” he said backstage. The same shape turned up on an off-the-shoulder dress and on a strapless top.On the tailoring front, he broke convention, pairing trad jackets with deeply cuffed shorts featuring elasticated waists. Cara Taylor opened and closed the show in black and white versions of the playful look. Leather was everywhere, from a shirt, maxi skirt, and bandeau top combo, to a plunge front dress held together under the bust with chrome hardware, that repeated on the jewelry. Maxwell called out an understated black wool shirt dress as his favorite piece.Though there were a few bejeweled items, the big takeaway here was the collection’s grown-up restraint, for both day or night. “I don’t know that evening for me right now is a gown,” he said. I had a hard time with anything that felt too ‘dressed.’” Favoring subtlety over drama, one sylph-like look dress combined a sweater with lightly padded shoulders and a bias cut silk skirt, another spliced together a knit tank and a fuller silk skirt. In recent season Maxwell toyed around with color and a variety of prints. He said goodbye to all that for fall. Almost everything came in monochrome, and 100% of it was in neutrals. He seemed to anticipate questions about the palette. Brandon Maxwell faded to gray? “Actually,” he said, “it came from a place of joy.”
14 February 2023
Mention Brandon Maxwell’s name and Lady Gaga’s multiple outfit changes at the 2019 Met Gala spring instantly to mind. Maxwell treasures his relationship with the superstar—he dressed her for the Oscars after-parties that year, too—and with the many other celebrities whose outfits he’s masterminded over the years. But he’d like to set the record straight. He got into the fashion business not to make event dresses, but because he loves tailoring. The red carpet maximalist is a minimalist at heart.Maxwell makes the case for his tailoring with this pre-fall collection, which he built as a modular lineup. The sequin mini that punctuates the strapless zip-front dress and cropped pants in look 1 reappears elsewhere: accessorizing a sequin tank dress, and worn solo with silk-cashmere knits and an inverted lapel jacket. The same mix-and-match approach holds true for a button-down cut with lots of volume at the back. It works as both the third piece of a pantsuit and as a shirtdress. Also versatile: a tunic-length tank dress that morphs into a cocktail number with the addition of sheer base layers. The lookbook is a user-friendly how-to.Bringing up his new morning tennis routine, and the rigorous scheduling required to manage not just this label, but also his Walmart collection and his work as a judge onProject Runway, Maxwell said, “I’m looking for consistency.” He’s betting his customer does too. The raw denim pleat-front, cargo-pocket trousers are modeled after pants that he put on his spring runway in September, and they look great with both a sleeveless ribbed tee and a matching denim blazer with those inverted lapels.
9 December 2022
Walking into Christie’s for Brandon Maxwell’s spring runway show was like descending into a glamorous nightclub: white plush carpeting, the designer’s name in neon greeting you as you walked in, and the rooms glowing in an otherworldly blue light. Fitting for a designer that’s known for his party wear.But then it was showtime, and the sound of birds chirping could be heard throughout. The light changed from blue to a soft yellow. The sun had risen. The first model came out wearing a white tee with horses layered underneath a floral and sequin embroidered cardigan, paired with a silver sequin skirt with a floral motif and topped off with a pink tweed-ish jacket. It’s not that it wasn’t glamorous, but there was just a relaxed feeling about the whole thing, reinforced when the model after that came out in a square sequin mosaic tee with the same horse print in metallic pastels, worn with slouchy, low-rise herringbone trousers, with her hands in her pockets. It was a sophisticated take on y2k style.“I’m almost seven years in now, and I’ve gotten older and I think I’ve matured,” said Maxwell backstage after the show. He’s also gotten busier. Along with his namesake label, he has a collection with Fila, plus two collections with Walmart, but he doesn’t feel bogged down by it all. “I think it’s brought a lot of balance, focus, and clarity to my life,” he said. “I’ve been trying to say it in the shows, that I really have been seeking peace and tranquility.” The designer and his partner recently moved out of the city and “into nature,” as he put it. “And I think that peace and quiet triggers a lot of involuntary memories for me, of growing up in nature when life was so slow, and that has kind of brought a lot of those memories from when I first came to love fashion.”That time was, of course, the late ’90s and early aughts, of wearing spaghetti strap dresses over white tees—though here the dress was in sheer silk, layered over a white tank. The ease Maxwell was looking to transmit came through loud and clear in a trio of skirts that seemed made from just one piece of fabric draped around the body at an angle and fastened on one side, with a pocket. One, done in the mossiest shade of bright green, was worn with an easy tank in the matching color.
Elsewhere, there were wide leg trousers with lots of zipper details inspired by raver pants, and a cool glitchy floral print that was overlaid on a silk jacquard with a print of the designer’s logo, which was turned into a simple strapless column dress that was ready to walk off the runway and onto a red carpet. The shades of lilac and light green were throwbacks to Hard Candy nail polish colors, and flowers under an early morning mist.“I just want life to be simpler now,” Maxwell said, and he knows simplicity doesn’t have to be boring.
14 September 2022
“I want to see things come back to life.” That was Brandon Maxwell in his showroom surrounded by a vibrant resort collection. After an emotional tribute to his grandmother for fall 2022 back in February, Maxwell relocated to Los Angeles for a couple of months. He co-hosted ABC’s red carpet Oscars pre-show and spent a lot of time outside at his best friend’s place on the west side; it felt like a reprieve, he said, after months of hunkering down in his New York apartment during the pandemic.The world feels awfully dark at the moment. That’s probably why we’re seeing designers embrace so much color this season. But few of them can match Maxwell for exuberance. This was a departure from his fall, which was rendered mostly in shades of black and white, but it was not so different from his lively spring show before it. That spring collection was Maxwell’s best-selling ever. Why not lean into that success? Why not say yes to happiness?After a couple of months in LA he seems to be of the opinion that Californians have something to teach the rest of us on that subject. The airbrushed T-shirts you find in Venice Beach souvenir shops were reimagined as printed fine gauge sweaters worn with fluted hem midi skirts in complementary colors, as a sundress with a pleated bodice and skirt, and as a silk duchesse mostly backless mini dress.Maxwell pointed out the work required to match up a palm tree’s leaves across the seams on the front of that mini dress. “I like clothes that look easy but are complicated to make,” he said. There were a few more in the showroom that met that description, among them a ball gown with exactingly matched horizontal stripes and a chambray shirt and full denim skirt painstakingly dip-dyed at their hems. Another standout dress in crushed pink and green cotton, whose laidback attitude was achieved by a hand-wringing process, was already on loan. Another happy customer.
13 June 2022
Brandon Maxwell has always worn his heart on his sleeve, but this was his most personal show yet. It opened with Siri reading Maxwell’s Wikipedia page before cutting to a short film of spliced together family photos and video clips, many of Maxwell through the years with his grandmother, who is now suffering from Alzheimer’s. The Wikipedia page reminded us that Maxwell spent much of his youth in her Longview, Texas clothing boutique. He credits his grandmother with his passion for design.“She’s a big part of my life,” he said at a preview. “I was going back to when I was a kid: While she was cooking I’d be in the back room taking blankets and wrapping them around my sister, emptying out her jewelry box, and making my sister carry one of her bags. When we decided to do a show, I wanted to make something that if it was my last one it would be a bookend that I was proud of.”The blanket shawls, antique jewelry, and clutch bags Maxwell remembers were recurring motifs here, talismans from his youth. Fabrics felt chosen to conjure a feeling of home, too, from the crushed satin of a double lapel coat, to the oversize chenille stitch of a short belted sweater dress, to the rich brown interior textiles Maxwell used for tailoring. The flowers on Karlie Kloss’s finale dress were taken from a painting he asked his grandfather to make in his grandmother’s honor.The last couple of times Maxwell was on the runway, the mood he channeled was slicker, more glamorous. That’s territory he’s at ease in, as the five outfits he made for Lady Gaga’s appearance at 2019’s “Camp” Met Gala make clear. The softer, more romantic tenor of these clothes was “a way to dial into a shared frequency” between himself and his grandmother, he said.This was a poignant show, a thoughtful and heartfelt goodbye to the woman who set him on his path. In his show notes Maxwell said his grandmother only had eyes for his seams, “typical of someone who pursued a life adjusting them.” Our eyes were particularly drawn to the fisherman sweaters and crushed satin maxi skirts near the end of the show that combined comfort and glamour.
13 February 2022
Where are all the prints? During the lockdowns, when designers across the board were soul-searching, Brandon Maxwell began dabbling with extroverted graphic motifs and animal patterns, a career first. But just as quickly as they emerged, they’ve disappeared again. The soul-searching is ongoing, but the prints are not. “This is what I like,” Maxwell said in a spacious new showroom off Fifth Avenue, nodding at racks of clothes in solid shades black, white, cream, and olive; aesthetically he leans minimal, but he’s got a maximalist’s heart.Maxwell described this pre-fall collection as a palette cleanser for his February show, which he hopes to organize a bit differently than previous outings. It’s too early for details, but it’s safe to say that he’s thinking more about dress-making and less about brand-building these days. Draping on the form with his AirPods in is his happy place, and it shows in these pieces, whose clean lines and unfussed attitude belie the care and thoughtfulness that went into them.A trio of column dresses warrant special attention for their streamlined elegance; two are in jersey with subtly draped necklines, and the third is in a cashmere rib with a twisted, off-the-shoulder silhouette. Another dress with a more fit-and-flare shape is built with an internal corset, while the easy blouson tops on vegan leather shirtdresses are achieved with a few nips and tucks. The shirtdress also comes in silver sequins.Maxwell may have reverted to monochromatic form, but that doesn’t mean his tailoring is unchanged. The cashmere blend pantsuit here is looser and more swaggering than the ones he used to cut in the past. He’s also showing an easier jean with a dip in the waist, to elongate the torso. At first glance, this is a more sober collection than his recent ones, but he hasn’t forgotten sexy.
8 December 2021
Brandon Maxwell was busier than usual backstage because he was wearing two hats: designer and stylist. “I wanted to do something that felt authentic," he said. “When I started I was maybe insecure about not having a fashion education, so I felt I needed to be more serious. But I’m not that serious a person. During the pandemic, I decided that if I got the opportunity ever again, I’d like to do it as me.”From the first look, this was different. In the five years he’s been on the runway Maxwell has been print-averse, but peeking out from beneath the show-opening sharply tailored jacket was a printed bodysuit, in not just any print but a swirling psychedelic print. Look two featured a sweatshirt with an illustration by the poster artist Mishka Westell on which a mushroom poses on a long shapely pair of legs.So, just who is Brandon Maxwell? Clearly, he’s more fun than his more decorous prior collections might’ve had us believe. Tonight, there was pleated gold lamé, pool blue patent croc, and high-contrast rugby stripes… on a strapless evening sheath. The sporty sexy shapes, he explained, were informed by the way the young women he works with are dressing now, i.e. with skin-baring body positivity.The collection was 100% ballgown free. If that’s partly due to current world events—there’s not as much need for gala attire as there was pre-pandemic—it’s also down to Maxwell’s attitude adjustment. Instead, for an evening out next spring he likes the look of a bikini top, hip-slung satin track pants, and a blazer. Gigi Hadid modeled a version of the look in a gray and white gingham check with a blurred-out flower. She did a little spin at the end of the runway, a move so old school it’s new school. When they came out for the finale, the models walked arm-in-arm, cracking smiles. Down with insecurity and seriousness. Up with authenticity and smiling!
11 September 2021
In his five years on the runway, Brandon Maxwell has shown precisely one print, but his new collection, photographed by Venetia Scott on models Lara Stone and Jourdan Dunn, is full of them: leopard spots, zebra stripes, florals, butterflies, and polka dots. Since the pandemic began, fashion watchers have been contemplating how COVID would change designers’ output. For Maxwell, a native Texan, it precipitated a move back to Austin, where his sister was expecting her first child. “Nine days turned into five months,” he said, and the comforts of home—make that the very well-appointed home of an interior designer friend where he was hunkering down—seeped into his new designs.Maxwell’s silhouettes remain as exacting and body-limning as ever, but the prints he commissioned from the interiors company Voutsa have an artful, hand-rendered look. The juxtaposition is particularly effective on the opening number: a long belted dress aswirl with green polka dots whose draped hourglass effect is achieved with a paint brush, not pinning and tucking. It’s a knock-out. On other looks, he combined patterns, pairing a black-on-cream leopard motif slip dress with a spotted coat in the reverse colorway, or splicing a wallpaper floral with those leopard spots for a fits-like-a-glove long-sleeved sheath. “I wanted the prints to do a lot of the work on most of the silhouettes,” he explained.Maxwell’s last-season foray into elevated sweats has fallen by the wayside. He may have cut his faux-fur coats with the cozy proportions of bathrobes, but these aren’t clothes for another season of shutdowns. He even put an after-dark spin on cable knits, cutting both an ankle-grazing cape and a matching capelet and sarong set in the stuff. These are novel enough, but it’s the prints that look like the beginning of a new chapter. He confirmed that he’s likely to show more of them for spring and that he’s hoping to be back on the runway in September.
12 May 2021
Earlier today Balenciaga released a VR video game by way of a fall 2021 collection. A collaboration with Unreal Engine, the interactive game is a testament to ingenuity and deep resources at a time in which the pandemic continues to fracture the fashion show system. Where do younger, smaller brands fit into the evolving situation? That question has kept Brandon Maxwell up at night these last several months. Maxwell is a designer who lives and breathes for his runway shows. They’re one of the feel-good moments of New York Fashion Week, with a loud cheering section that’s always appreciative of Maxwell bringing out his studio team with him for a bow. All that was off the table, so what to do?“Truthfully,” Maxwell said over Zoom, “it was a very hard year. “There was a lot of taking stock of the past and wondering where my life was going.” The video he made acknowledges his struggle. At the start, it’s a sort of existential dialogue between confusion and hope. Maxwell, who co-directed the video, recreated almost every aspect of a live show, down to the backstage gossip and the PR chief making announcements through a headset. Even without an audience, the models give it their all, vamping and twirling in the spotlights. In the end, Lady Gaga cuts in with “Free Woman,” the mostly black clothes give way to bold primary colors, and hope wins out after all. Shake Shack care packages guaranteed the good vibes for those watching from home.Maxwell called the project an “act of optimism.” Over the years, he’s graduated from occasion dressing to polished American sportswear. Amid the ongoing work-from-home situation, he put an emphasis on athleticism this season. “When they’re stepping back into the world, my clients will want comfort, but they’ll also want to look ‘dressed,’” he said. This collection synthesized that state of mind. There were exposed midriffs and elasticized waistbands, tracksuits turned into evening looks, and off-the-shoulder dresses in sweat-shirting fabric. The shirtdress silhouette that Dr. Jill Biden wore to give a speech at the Democratic National Convention reappeared in a tech-y black nylon.“You often don’t know who you’re dancing for,” Maxwell said, problematizing the pace of collections and the challenges facing less-established businesses like his. If there’s been a plus side to this COVID year for him, it’s this: “The connection with who I’m doing it for has gotten deeper.
” Along those lines, these clothes will be available for pre-order onbrandonmaxwellonline.comtonight.
6 December 2020
Not too long after the New York City lockdown began, Brandon Maxwell launched his e-commerce site and a newsletter, which he writes himself. The newsletter is designed to move merchandise, of course, but Maxwell uses a personal touch. One week, he’s sharing a story about his first bike ride—and his first time in jeans—in months: “Both of these things made a huge difference in lifting my spirits, and I suggest trying them if you can!” Another week, he’s sharing links to at-home tutorials from Deborah Lippmann, his backstage manicurist, and Michael and Darroch Putnam, the floral designers at his shows. He’s not averse to promoting his friend’s merchandise either; Gigi Burris, the maker of his pre-fall 2020 moiré silk hair accessories, has been the beneficiary of such largesse.The challenges of operating a luxury clothing business amidst the pandemic and the recession it has caused are many, the collapsing department-store model not least among them. But Maxwell was sanguine on a resort collection Zoom call. The launch of that e-comm site means he’s far less reliant on his wholesalers than he was previously—it’s now a 50/50 split between wholesale and direct-to-consumer, as opposed to 90/10—and he’s far better connected to his clients. Camaraderie and community are two hallmarks of Maxwell’s feel-good fashion shows; the online connections he’s making now are a smart, necessary extension of that.What those online connections are telling him is that his women want fantasyandcomfort these days, so the 15 resort looks he put together bridge that gap. Skirts are cut with the ease of sarongs, and there’s an emphasis on denim, which does well for him, as well as roomy knit separates and clingy knit dresses. Any flourishes are above the waist; capelet shoulders, décolleté-revealing cutouts, and the giant duchesse bow of the single evening dress seem tailor-made for Zoom. Color is the story here, from a vivid green suit to a baby pink shirtdress to chartreuse trousers. “I wanted joy, optimism, excitement,” he said. If you sign up for his newsletter, he’ll throw in a weekend playlist too.
10 August 2020
Brandon Maxwell shows are typically pretty boisterous affairs, but this one set a new standard: It featured its own cheering section. To be more exact, Lexi Brumback and Gabi Butler—two of the breakout stars of the Netflix seriesCheer—were seated in the front row and led nearby guests in clapping and hollering at Maxwell’s models as they appeared in the designer’s finery. Several of them couldn’t help but grin before resuming their customary catwalk-mandated pout. It was a winning spectacle, and set against the backdrop of the American Museum of Natural History’s dioramas of live-looking moose and grizzlies, it felt like a genuine slice of Americana.The clothes fit right in. This was a big, upbeat collection that found Maxwell settling comfortably into his daywear groove for women and finding his feet in a much-expanded, recently launched menswear collection. The emphasis across the board was on fabrication—there were some very showy materials, such as a liquid-looking tortoiseshell, but mainstays here were textiles with a strong sense of hand, like the suede, velvety corduroy, dense alpaca, and buttery cashmere given generous play in both the men’s and women’s ranges. Meanwhile, shapes erred toward the simple—the better to let those luxe fabrics shine—and showed off one or two articulated elements, like the oversize collar on a coat or the sculpted turn of a sleeve. (Or specific to the menswear, zipper detailing.) There was a lot of tailoring for the women, all of it very sharp and practical, and Maxwell’s best evening looks had that same tone; a twisted halter-neck dress in black satin was as to the point as a blade. His sheer draped numbers seemed a bit silly in comparison. In general, though, this collection felt thought through and confident—and worthy of a cheer.
9 February 2020
Brandon Maxwell likes to chat with his fans. He talks to them online, in stores, and when they recognize him on the street. And he’s not just accepting accolades, Maxwell explained at an appointment today at his Midtown studio, where, for the first time, he was showing one of his pre-collections; he also seeks feedback from the women he “serves,” as he sees it. “What I’ve realized is that they’re not going into stores and looking at a dress and thinking, Oh, this was inspired by a trip Brandon took to wherever,” he said. “What they’re thinking is, Does this dress work for me?” The more Maxwell talks to fans, and his clients, and his female friends and family and staff, the more he designs with “Does this work for me?” in mind. It’s a good mantra for a pre-fall collection: Relieved of the need to create a spectacle, this season Maxwell got down to the business of designing punchy, appealing, wearable clothes.The punch came courtesy of the palette. By degrees, Maxwell’s collections have gotten more and more colorful since he launched his brand with strictly black and white looks; this time out, the neutrals felt like an afterthought, with bold shades of pink and red and orange playing the starring roles, and a kicky lipstick print doing a showy cameo. The colors gave some pop to neat-as-a-pin daywear looks like Maxwell’s sleeveless, wasp-waist shirtdresses in cotton satin, one of several items that gave this outing a bit of a preppy mien. Tidy shirting was a theme, some of it embellished with novelty elements like a wavy gazar hem, or a blouson sleeve; another was menswear-inspired tailoring, cut with Maxwell’s typical precision.Generally speaking, the Maxwell woman likes to look polished, though she may, on occasion, slip on a pair of his ripped jeans (the best seller in his Spring 2020 show, he said) or toss on a slouchy sweater or easygoing knit frock with a seam-detailed bust and bell-shaped sleeves. That latter look, in black, was, Maxwell reported, his mother’s favorite of all the looks here, which underlined the sense you got, looking at these clothes, that he was trying to whip up a little something for everyone—the woman hot to trot for a molded leather bra top or petal pink “baby shorts,” as Maxwell termed them, and the woman inclined to pair a nubby heather gray sweater with a dainty pleated skirt covered in silver sequins, and so on.
What this approach lacks in rigor it makes up for in generosity—there were, truly, pieces here that could work for just about anyone.
9 December 2019
For a designer best known for dazzling evening frocks, there was an awful lot of denim on Brandon Maxwell’s runway this evening—not to mention, a whole bunch of men. The introduction of menswear and the emphasis on daywear looks for the gals were two welcome surprises from Maxwell, who attributed the change-up to an upswing in mood: Last season, Maxwell noted, speaking backstage before the show, he’d been reckoning with some personal hardships; this time around, as he began to brainstorm his new collection, he found himself brimming over with gratitude for the “loving community” that had shored him up during a hard time, and, in recompense, he found himself wanting to make garments they could relate to. This community included his fiancé, who had been requesting Brandon Maxwell menswear for a while, he said, and a troupe of girlfriends who wanted great-looking clothes for everyday life. ’Tis true that your average woman is more frequently in need of jeans than a broad-skirted ball gown.For the ladies, Maxwell’s take on daywear amounted, in large part, to a country club–ish take on model-off-duty style, with blazers thrown over skinny and slouchy jeans, and blouson button-downs in formal fabrics such as gazar paired with short skirts and miniskirts. For evening, Maxwell erred toward the bodycon, with lots of jersey dresses and slinky gowns with daring cutaways. Maxwell has some work to do with his jersey—he’s more experienced, and more deft, working with fabrics with a sense of structure that he can shape via his canny tailoring—and some of the more skin-baring looks didn’t quite come off, especially in comparison to the cool, confident sexiness of, say, a decidedly modest caftan-shaped shirtdress in lipstick red silk. Maxwell also has a learning curve ahead of him in the menswear department—the individual pieces were all very dapper, and his tailoring talents didn’t fail him, but the overall effect was a bit wishy-washy, with the most notable innovation seen in his choice of suiting palette—red, lilac, and emerald. But as for the show as a whole, Maxwell got his point across: He wanted to celebrate the people he loves who love him, in the language of fashion, and this collection was chock-full of celebratory joie de vivre. Whether they were dressed to go to a gala or a brunch date, Maxwell’s mannequins looked like they were heading out for some fun.
7 September 2019
IfBrandon Maxwell’s previous collection was all about returning home, this one was about returning to fundamentals. Gone, for the most part, were the splashy colors of Maxwell’sSpring ’19runway, as the designer revived his beloved black-and-white. The silhouettes were retightened-up alongside the palette: The emphasis here was on lean, monochromatic wasp-waist looks, with lots of pencil shapes and beautifully tailored bootleg trousers. There were some sporty gestures—anoraks and tops shaped like racing tanks, for instance, and Maxwell loosened up his silhouette for evening, showing a swishy palazzo pant and long-sleeved blouse ensemble in peridot satin and a few bouffant gowns and formal skirts.But overall, the collection hewed to a mood of constriction. As Maxwell explained after the show, he’s been dealing with an illness in the family, and the experience made him want to create clothes that felt a bit protective and armor-like. You could sense that desire in his trim puffer jackets, the cape attachment on certain sleeves, and the funnel necks adorning many of his tops. But mostly that protective spirit came through in Maxwell’s hewing to terra firma, sticking to immaculate, classic looks with easy retail appeal. As he noted himself, not every season is right for whimsy.
9 February 2019
About two years ago, Brandon Maxwell went home to Texas for a two month sabbatical with his team. That would be a matter of trivia were it not for two facts that emerged from his show tonight. One was that he’d convinced a sponsor, Kia, to donate goods and funds to the school system in Marfa, Texas, a place, Maxwell had come to realize, where the gap between the town’s native population and its expat community of artists is wide indeed. It was refreshing to see a designer step back from making political statements on the runway in favor of engaging with the flesh-and-blood of politics off the catwalk. The second fact was that this collection was very, well,Texan—big, shiny, and, most notably, colorful. The looks here conjured the attitude of Houston or Dallas during the oil boom ’80s, a place and time where women really did themselves up, whether they were meeting their girlfriends for lunch at the country club or heading out to a charity gala. The decadence of their apparel was an expression of power.As noted, the Texas-ness was primarily conveyed via Maxwell’s vivid palette, which leaned heavily on pinks and fuchsias and Nancy Reagan reds, as well as sunbursts of yellow and gold, and greens ranging from seafoam to teal. There was also a plainspoken quality to many of these garments—the crisp white button-downs, the fly-front trousers, the dressy denim—that added to the Lone Star State ambience. All of the looks were executed with Maxwell’s typical polish and his respect for the traditional proportions of natty American sportswear. You wouldn’t come away from this show feeling like fashion had been revolutionized in any way, but you did leave knowing Brandon Maxwell has a very solid read on the kinds of clothes many well-to-do women are looking for—clothes that have a sense of pep and freshness but are nonetheless veryappropriate.You could read Maxwell’s aesthetic as quite conservative but for one thing. There’s a lot of talk about runway diversity, and Maxwell is a designer who didn’t need to be goaded into inclusiveness. But if you’ve ever wondered why representation of a broad range of ethnicities and body types matters, seeing Maxwell’s show clarified the issue: That his collection seemed so much an homage to the ruling class made it meaningful to see a vision of a ruling class where all kinds share the spoils. It’s not entirely true, in other words, to say that Maxwell kept politics off the runway.
More accurately, he proffered a potential future on his runway that his off-the-catwalk efforts on behalf of the school system in Marfa might help, in some small way, bring into being.
9 September 2018
Brandon Maxwell left a note on every seat this evening at the presentation of his Fall collection, in a tiered theater overlooking a rain-swept Central Park South. The card declared a valentine to the women he works with (who bowed with the designer at show’s end) and the women who wear his clothes. That was the first sign of the deeply personal relationship Maxwell holds with not only his goods but also his group. “I literally text the collection as it comes along, every day, to friends, family, everyone,” he said.The difference in this Brandon Maxwell collection, though, was a palpable sense of confidence. Those outbound messages weren’t for validation as much as they were for honing and editing, creating arguably his most varied lineup yet—one designed ostensibly in a feedback loop of what women, his women, want to wear. He admitted that the nervousness of yesteryear was less present. “I’ve been thinking a lot about relaxed glamour,” Maxwell said, “and that kind of came together in the end because I was relaxed in approaching this collection.”Much of it—note, notallof it—was beautiful and appeared very much in the aesthetic lane of what has made this guy as popular as he is: sleek, chic, unapologetic fabulosity and always with hints, little twists and turns, in the styling and the details that give it that extra cowboy-boot kick.Teensy tiny purses “that can hold a lighter or some cash” came in the form of cross-body bijoux pineapples. (These were also imagined as earrings.) “Pineapples were on my mom’s stationery growing up,” said Maxwell. That was interesting to hear; like instances in times past, there was somewhat of a projection of what a boy back then, and now a man of Maxwell’s age, may dream of when considering the red carpet sartorial. There was a certain ’80s aura to one-shouldered or column dresses, both in resplendently bright but simple colors. The same might be said of a black velvet, sweetheart-neckline, spaghetti-strap piece—the point being the twinkle of Maxwell’s fascination around, and lust for, fashion is still present (and much appreciated).Denim was back, best when skinny in the leg and flared at the ankle—and modern evening also shone. Gigi Hadid closed the show in a twinkling ball skirt paired with a black knit hoodie, and it was superb. But regarding knits: Some of these pieces, like floor-dusting trousers, fell too much on the “relaxed” side of Maxwell’s “relaxed glamour” wellspring.
Still, it wasn’t a big detriment—Fall needs to sell and satiate a wider need. As Maxwell concluded with a laugh: “Every woman is not just going to a black-tie event every night. They have places to be!”
11 February 2018
What Brandon Maxwell does well, he doesverywell. His heart—and it’s a big heart—is 100% invested in what he does, and he celebrates not only the beauty of the women he dresses, but also the camaraderie. He eats pizza with his models before his shows. He spends as much time with his mother and his sisters as he can. And, through that, he listens.Spring was his best collection to date. Maxwell’s label is still young, and in the year and a half or so since he’s been in stores, his codes have been somewhat predictable—formal, evening, luxe-but-clean glam, the works. Spring shifted that. There was far more color, significantly more day or cocktail wear—the perfect crisp white button-down, fabulous with a capital F animal costume earrings made in collaboration with a jewelry line called Lunch at the Ritz by Zander Elliot, and even denim, which Maxwell originally swore to George Cortina, his stylist, that he’d never do (you can take the boy out of Texas…). But perhaps most importantly, there was a buoyancy that enlivened the low-lit chambers of New York’s famed Doubles Club beneath the Sherry-Netherland. The point: Maxwell is the happiest he’s ever been, he said backstage after the show. “In the past six months, I’ve enjoyed my life for the first time as an adult,” he added.An emotional rollercoaster brought him to that place; after last season, his grandmother passed away unexpectedly, but two weeks later, he got engaged. The down-and-up of that dual experience catalyzed a kind of come-to-peace moment. “Maybe I am never going to be that ‘big thing,’ but I can be that big thing to myself,” Maxwell said.And creatively, clear-headedly, he blossomed—formality remained to a degree, but variance emerged. Gigi Hadid opened the show in a belted pink blazer and cigarette jeans (cigarette and bootleg shapes are Maxwell’s best-selling trousers—it made sense to do them in denim)—it was Dallas-chic in the best way. The show progressed with a primary color-centric palette, mixed with pale pinks and signaturenoirsand whites, along pin-tucked and flirty dresses, or pleated gowns—sportive on top and flowing in the skirt. Maxwell offered embroidered suits, low-cut dresses, flared-sleeve jumpers, vaporous angora sweaters, and more. Basically, something for every woman, or at least every woman who likes to dress up, get her hair done and wear her lipstick bright (another source of inspiration—this was the image upon which Maxwell “was raised.
”) “I wanted to give something that our customer could wear to work, or to her friend’s house on the weekend,” he said.At show’s end, a platinum haired Karlie Kloss exited in a ball-skirt with an equine-motif brocade. I Instagrammed it, and within a few minutes, a friend messaged back saying “I want to re-do my wedding, and I want to wear what Karlie’s wearing.” Insta-validation, from the public itself, in near real time.Optimism and improved mental health served Maxwell to great effect tonight, and the evening had an added bonus: to help contribute to Hurricane Harvey’s repair funds in his home state, the designer auctioned off two tickets for guests to attend his show, with 100% of the proceeds going to the Houston Food Bank. The warmth of that gesture, plus the strong lineup, amplified Spring into something fuller. “The most honest thing to say,” Maxwell said, “is that my life has become more colorful. I will go home tonight and I am going to be very happy.” Well-deserved, sir.
9 September 2017
“Create from my heart.” That’s a line from Brandon Maxwell’s Fall show notes, which addressed the designer’s struggles, since starting his line, with pressure—both from the industry and its already high standards and internally, where that tension might be even higher. Tonight, 71 floors above the southern tip of a radiant wintertime Manhattan and away from the classic Gotham haunts where he had previously shown, he wrote that he was “ready to let go of what people want from [him].”Maxwell can breathe easy. To see him test the waters of progressing from his signature of abbreviated palette eveningwear was encouraging. He should have the confidence to take it further, though—at this point, shoppers and spectators know well what Maxwell does. Fall’s evolutionary step—and it was a cautious step—gave one the conviction that if he pushed with more gusto, he could divine yet more of the starry power that gives his label its all but stand-alone charm.“All the leather, the diamonds, the fur,” said Maxwell backstage, speaking to his fashion fantasies as a youngster in Texas. There was a kind of boy-dreaming-in-his-bedroom, bigger-is-better appeal in brighter color usage, impactful leather numbers, exaggerated proportions of sleeves (or a dark jade fur jacket worn by Imaan Hammam), a damn fabulous black pony hair ball-skirt, or a clingy, mercurial disco suit coated allover in Swarovski crystals. Added separates—mainly knits—were a savvy stride ahead, too.Other elements of this collection were too timid, though, like a sweetheart neckline jumpsuit, a minidress with a multilayered collar, or a long-sleeved shirt with matching blue-green cigarette trousers. These felt too much like the Brandon Maxwell from which the designer wanted to advance, and it held back the presentation a bit. At show’s end, Mariah Carey’s “Fantasy” filled the room (the soundtracks at these shows are phenomenal)—this wasn’t the sweetest fantasy, but, so long as Maxwell keeps dreaming, it may well be in the future.
14 February 2017
It is some kind of fashion moment when your runway show opens to a sampling of Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman,” and the crowd cheers andLady Gagashimmies visibly in her seat.Brandon Maxwellbrought down the house with exactly that scene at his Spring catwalkconcocktail tonight at New York’s famed Russian Tea Room (the designer has a track record of staging his intimate programs at upscale, old-school Manhattan fixtures).Somehow, that moment felt verynow—perhaps due to a relatively sleepy season so far, where the street still reverberates, where slouchy cut-out shoulders rule, where deliveries are jumbled and no new rhythm has quite been struck with the rise of see-now-buy-now schemes. No wonder the audience rejoiced when Maxwell took his bow; finally, they’d been hit with a shot of pure fun, this one in a voluminous ’80s groove with a monochrome ’90s shellac and a twenty-teens Insta-glam sensibility.The clothes were energizing. Maxwell admitted to wanting “to make a bit more of a wearable collection,” and that this one in particular was inspired by “learning a lot of different types of love this year.” That goal was accomplished, that love shown (Naomi Campbell, in addition to Gaga, rose for a standing ovation). Where in the past Maxwell’s gowns and separates have been relatively covered-up and statement-making, tonight he offered more sexiness, more sharp silhouettes, and more general variation than before (though keep in mind that thebefore, here, is just one year—Maxwell started his business for Spring 2016). He noted the introduction of an olive colorway, and a new “petal pink,” which is “becoming a signature.”Whether in a crisp white tailored blazer, a noir bow-front silk top, or an olive deep-V dress with piped cross-body wraps at the abdomen, what was most convincing was seeing how the (extremely well-cast) models handled the looks. No doubt they were instructed to dance-and-move if they were feeling it, but one seemed to genuinely burst out into a smile halfway down the runway. And that’s kind of it, isn’t it? Maxwell isn’t moving any conceptual needles, but he is fulfilling a need; one for a reachable, or at least dream-able, turn in the spotlight.
13 September 2016
It’s impressive that Brandon Maxwell was able to pull off the show he did tonight, considering he was in Los Angeles yesterday for theGrammysto styleLady Gaga. (They’re best friends.) Gaga was very much present this evening, too, with Wilma Flintstone–red hair, no less, as a strongly cast lineup of top newish name models like Bhumika Arora, Romee Strijd, andImaan Hammamslinked around Monkey Bar, kitted out in Maxwell’s bichrome sophomore collection of high-wattage eveningwear. The affair felt intimate and like a low-key but swank party—and it went off without a hitch. “I’m a really good sort of tired,” said the designer afterward, rubbing his eyes. He can sleep easy, though: Staging aside, the clothes were damn good.That isn’t to say, though, that Maxwell’s designs are for everyone. They’re no-holds-barred sexy, trimmed, sculptural, daresay a little Mugler-esque at times, and striking, so you have to be either a) famous or b) incredibly confident to carry them (though the inverse could be said, in that if you try one of his deep-V or velvet-bodice gowns, you might all of a sudden feel that much more assured). But throughout, there’s also a vascular system of cleanness and polish and dimension, which feels modern—ostensibly, what Gaga would wear now, with her post-surreal but still just-this-side-of-odd proclivities of late. “I didn’t want to veer too far left from my first collection,” said Maxwell, “I wanted women to have a continuation, to get a full year from it.”What that meant for Fall, then, was another large swath of evening silhouettes: big bell sleeves and satin trains, the sort of forms popular with fashion-forward uptown girls, à laRosie Assoulin; plunging or caped dresses; minimal ’70s jumpsuits; the hottest cigarette pantsNew York Fashion Weekhas seen in a good long while. “So many people went out on a limb for me,” said the designer. “I just wanted to make them proud.” And though it’s tricky to know for sure just two seasons in, it looks like Maxwell has a good thing going—and plenty of people in the audience tonight were certainly feeling it, including Gaga, who jumped to her feet at the finale.
17 February 2016
For a first-time designer,Brandon Maxwellknows what he’s doing. With the uptown location of Mr. Chow as his show venue and a guest list so edited, every name read as a Who's Who of the fashion world, Maxwell had the odds stacked in his favor at his premiereNew York Fashion Weekpresentation. That says nothing of the fact that he joins the design community asLady Gaga’s longtime stylist who has covered magazines arm in arm with the singer and who calls Gaga's frequent collaboratorsSteven Klein,Alexander Wang, andInez and Vinoodhhis friends. Then there was Gaga herself, perched front row in one of his designs, cheering on models as they walked by and breaking into tears of joy as the finale gowns brushed passed her. In a season where designers are striving for intimate, personal settings, Maxwell truly nailed it.But what of the clothes? With power women as his starting point, Maxwell sent out sharply tailored separates in black, ivory, and a dusty rose, culminating in several over-the-top gowns. Nearly every look featured some element of ridged pleating, a motif derived from Maxwell’s childhood practice of dressing up his sisters in bed sheets and fastening them with his father’s cummerbunds. The effect worked best when it was used minimally, like on the lapels of second-skin dinner jackets or around the waist of tailored trousers. A high-neck white wrap dress and black, billowy-sleeved frock edged into costume territory, the sort of things that could only be pulled off by someone with a commanding presence to rival Gaga’s. For those looking for just a touch of diva, we’d recommend the cut-to-there minidress on Ophelie Guillermand. Sexy without question, but a little better suited for off-stage activities.
15 September 2015