Calvin Luo (Q4008)
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Calvin Luo is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Calvin Luo |
Calvin Luo is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
Have you noticed that everything in fashion has to have a name these days? Bows can’t just be bows, they have to becoquette. Pink can’t be just a color, it has to beBarbiecore. And even something as quintessential as a pair of jeans, a white t-shirt, and a leather jacket can’t be just an easy look, it has to beoff-duty.Back in the ’90s, argued designer Calvin Luo at an appointment in one of his Shanghai stores, when supermodels like Cindy Crawford or Linda Evangelista and actors including Julia Roberts and Gwyneth Paltrow “stepped out” in between shoots or turns on the runway, their personal style had, well,style. In today’s terms, the designer explained, “it’s hard to tell if their clothes were styled or just randomly put together, because they just so good.” That casual, minimally chic vibe of the ’90s has been mythologized online ad-nauseum, via paparazzi snapshots of Crawford, Evangelista, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, and the like. It’s gotten to the point that the look not only has a name but is also merchandised in stores, and now celebrities and non-famous folk alike try to replicate it. If it wasn’t styled then, it certainly is now.This aesthetic became the backdrop for Luo’s fall 2024 lineup. What drew him to it, he said, is its simplicity, and how essential it feels even 30 years later. His interest coincides with what has been an overarchingly conservative season. That Luo dedicated his latest collection to crafting really great basics—a little black dress, gray cardigans, tank tops, and some jeans—is no mistake. “This is how people dress now, and this is what they’re buying,” the designer said.But Luo still found a way of imbuing his singular touch. “Pre-styled” is the best word to describe the designer’s riffs on timeless classics: Layered tank tops and cardigans were knitted as 2-in-1s, and his cool baggy jeans with criss-cross flies came with built-in belts. For a bit of anti-quiet luxury eccentricity, he added extra buttons to pieces and took the frame and clasp off an evening clutch and used it to frame pockets on jackets and blazers.Luo has been spending some time off the runway as he’s prioritized opening stores in China. His clothes certainly look good on hangers, but it would be interesting to see him take on the challenge of showing them in motion again. So much in fashion these days feels overworked, but Luo has a way of balancing his meticulous eye with a sense of ease.
Part pre-styled and part sartorial serendipity—if you need a name for it, call it the Calvin Luo look.
9 April 2024
Calvin Luo skipped the whole Paris Fashion Week shebang this season. He has bigger plans. The designer opened his fourth store in China, and the second in Shanghai, earlier this year, and will open two more in the coming months. He’s also in the early stages of planning his 10th anniversary next year. A homecoming show in China after years showing in New York and Paris is not out of the question, though Luo didn’t get this far by showing his hand all in one go.Luo builds his collections like an editor would a fashion spread—lest we forget he’s the founder ofRouge Fashion BookChina, the biannual print glossy. There’s always an underlying story to his lineups, a common denominator of treatments or materials, and something unexpected to keep things interesting.The story this season: a study of the Italian sculptor Raffaele Monti’s famousVeiled Lady(1845), which is revered for the masterful way the artist conveyed the delicate cascading of fabric. The common factor: twists, tucks, and folds decorating every piece. The curveball: Rather than focus his sculptural efforts on chiffons and silks, Luo played with wool suitings, tech fabrics, denims, knits, and even some lived-in leather.“Normally, when people talk about draping they think of the soft,” said Luo at a walkthrough at his newest store, “but I wanted to play with all kinds of different fabrications. It was a challenge, but I think it looks quite interesting.” That it does. His motorcycle leather pants and curvaceous jeans are the kinds of bottoms the cool kids line up for here in Shanghai, while the tiny tucks and folds on the side seams of tailored minis and coats decorated with built-in belts are likely to grab the attention of the ladies shopping across the street at Dior and Givenchy. Somewhere in the middle are Luo’s cashmere sweaters, some with double layers consisting of a tank under a micro cardigan and others roomier and tacked at the chest to create the illusion of bust cups. Most ambitious was his tailoring. The back of a hefty felted wool coat was twisted like a candy wrapper, both seductive and quirky, and a fantastic men’s blazer was cut with a high ’90s lapel and its right side pulled and stretched all the way to the left side seam. These would be beguiling styling tricks in the pages of a magazine, but chez Luo they’re built into his design.
Luo is a narrative-driven designer, but his clothes are just as compelling hanging in his stores as they are all done up in his lookbooks and on his runways.
13 October 2023
Calvin Luo returned to the Paris runways for the first time since September 2019. When the pandemic happened, Luo suddenly found himself “stuck in China.” He may not have been able to hold a fashion show, but that didn’t stop his business from growing; he’s opened three retail stores in China in the past six months and has plans for three more before the end of the year. It’s one of the reasons why Luo was thinking about balance. “When we started to develop the collection, I think it was very important to find a balance between my feelings and our global audience from Europe, the US, the UK, and Asia,” he explained on a call the day before his show. “And that immediately led me to Patti Smith.” He was inspired by the way she dressed but also who she is as an artist. In his show notes was a quote from the punk poet and artist: “In art and dream may you proceed with abandon. In life may you proceed with balance and stealth.”The fall collection presented menswear along with womenswear, and the silhouettes worked equally across genders. Luo’s search for balance manifested itself on the runway in the splicing and merging of pieces and silhouettes. A black cropped suit jacket worn with a white yoked skirt was actually all one piece, while another similar dress—made of a vest and a skirt—was styled underneath a denim skirt for some unexpected layering. Another strapless denim top styled from an upside-down pair of jeans worn with pieced leather cargo pants was more obviously a jumpsuit but nonetheless still interesting in its mix of fabrics. (The leather cargo pants, also shown in blue, were hand-distressed to softly emulate a favorite pair of jeans.) The most special of these collaged experiments was perhaps a traditional tailored suit jacket that had a black-and-white ribbed bandeau around it. “You just put it on over your head,” said Luo. Easy, like a T-shirt.An off-the-shoulder, ruffled blouse style was the main character in the collection, made from leather or satin, sometimes studded, sometimes with an added long sleeve. The rounded, flower-inspired silhouette was often grounded by straight-leg trousers, some with a garter-belt overlay, others with a crisscross waistband with a leather-belt detail: The latter has become one of Luo’s signatures, and there were many buckle embellishments throughout.
Elsewhere there were rosebud embellishments and floral details, including on an unexpectedly soft white strapless crochet dress, which provided a certain necessary softness in the collection. If the futuristic headbands as sunglasses seemed a little out of step, they can be forgiven. After all, the Paris runways are indeed the place to “proceed with abandon.”
6 March 2023
For spring, Calvin Luo was inspired by the German-Polish artist Alicja Kwade, known for her sculptures and installations that deal with the concept and perception of time, space, and reality. “Alicja is very good at manipulating common materials, and recombining ordinary items to ‘rebirth’ her structures,” Luo explained over Zoom from Shanghai. “So I spent a lot of time and focus developing the texture of fabrics, and combining different types of materials to integrate into the collection.”Jackets and zip-up blousons came in tweed and houndstooth, and were pieced together with knitted or jersey panels, and embellished with mismatched buttons—some vintage and some deadstock from previous collections—as textural elements. Denim pieces were two-sided, constructed with jersey in the back. “When you look at the piece from a different angle, you get a different vibe. You know, the denim is more casual and the jersey is quite sporty,” Luo added.He also took the sneakers he showed last season, and added a thick rubber outsole “to provide more function.” “Now it can be useful for hiking or outdoor activities,” he said. Metal beads were strung together into vests and skirts and used as embellishment on dresses and other casual separates. Thin metal wiring—normally used for eyeglasses—was fashioned into metal rings that were both decorative and functional. There were exciting details in every garment and yet they managed to retain a feeling of ease about them.Most successful was Luo’s take on tailoring. Jackets were constructed with a “fold” at the hem that gave the impression of two jackets being layered on top of each other. A pair of skirt suits featured jackets with deconstructed lapels that created an interesting geometric effect which was mirrored in their matching skirts. They may have been born from conceptual thinking, but their execution proved quite timeless. Even Luo’s experiments with unusual materials, like the little bags strung on chains (“for airpods,”) and baseball hats made from shiny ceramic, felt wearable, a reflection of the collection as a whole.
4 October 2022
Affirming that fall 2022 will be the season of the suit is Calvin Luo’s ingeniously tailored new collection. Inspired, Luo says over the phone from Shanghai, by Helmut Newton’s legendary photo of Yves Saint Laurent’s le smoking, Luo began to reconsider what a louche, elegant nighthawk might wear in 2022 and beyond. He called Saint Laurent’s flared classic “too formal and serious for this generation,” instead trying to infuse his own millennial sensibility into suiting.Blazers are cropped and wrapped, skirts layered over trousers or hiked up into dresses, and hips padded out into a cartoony new New Look. Luo’s best tailoring innovations are his simplest: layered cropped blazers over longer ones with chain details around the waist or split sleeve jackets that fasten with his signature kiss lock detail. Boxy little jackets are shared across genders, and there is something twistedly sexy about Luo’s X-front, kiss lock vests, which, inadvertently, touch on the season’s other themes: motocross and corsetry.Styled with square-toe sneakers and photographed in Paris—even with the designer stuck in Shanghai—this collection pushes Luo outside of his fanciful norm and into proper prêt-à-porter. It’s not hard to imagine customers of all genders flocking to these diverse, roomy pieces, imbuing Luo’s nouveau le smokings with their own life. (And to affirm that this is indeed a modern take on the look, Luo’s models smoke e-cigarettes.) Even the two gowns that close the collection have a restrained modernity: A black-on-black embroidered column and a black singlet with a white feathered bottom are clothes to be worn—not clothes that wear you.
6 March 2022
After an extensive spring 2022 womenswear collection, Calvin Luo is thinking more concisely for men’s. At just 12 looks, the lineup is a distillation of his best ideas around ’70s tailoring and sharp color palettes. “I enjoy it when my womenswear and menswear collections relate to each other,” he said. That they do: Fastenings, fabrics, and an overall crispness are shared between the collections.Retro tailoring and bright colors can read as essentials in his womenswear collections, but for men, a fuzzy pink bomber or a cropped leather harness signals something more subversive or radical. “It is more about gender disruption rather than styles,” Luo affirms. “As womenswear embraced elements of menswear, men’s fashion also became more gender neutral in the 1970s; it got bolder. This idea was the starting point of the collection.”It’s an idea that seems to have taken hold in Shanghai and other cosmopolitan Chinese cities, in fact. Vogue Runway’s own street style coverage shows a move towards more unexpected combinations of style, garment, and textures. Men, women, whoever—Luo’s sleek new clothes are for everyone.
1 November 2021
Calvin Luo hit his stride during the pandemic, sharpening the messages and tailoring of his eponymous collections. Following a thorough reexamination of his oeuvre for fall 2021—his 10th collection—he’s given himself a challenge for spring 2022: Embody the diversity he sees in contemporary Shanghai style. He found a reference in the contradictory aesthetics of the ’70s: “The diversity of the ’70s is the blueprint for today,” he said on a phone call. “It’s hard to do one style, so I chose three iconic styles.”Punk, Pop art, and hippie are the three movements Luo took on for the season. The fact that each capsule collection carries the Luo signatures well and would blend seamlessly into the others is the good and bad news of this experiment. While such defined movements gave Luo structure during designing, the rigid separation sort of weakens his point that modern style exists between genres, eras, and aesthetics.Nevertheless, Luo has plenty of hits in his lineup. His pleated midiskirts and cropped blazers, quickly becoming brand signatures, are made in new plaids and with pierced, punkish details. Striped tops and dresses come with sexy cutouts along the collarbone—a welcome, more thoughtful take on Hot Girl Summer style. He’s also experimented with a bit more flou; the blousons and small-butterfly-adorned vests that make up his hippie are sure to have Gen Z appeal.
4 October 2021
After a year off, Calvin Luo’s menswear collection is back. The gap, Luo explained over the phone, was due to COVID; it was too difficult to manufacture both men’s and women’s in the depths of the pandemic. Now that life is going back to normal in Shanghai—and people are shopping again—Luo’s menswear operation is wading back into the seasonal waters.It’s a slow process. The designer’s fall 2021 collection is a concise rethink of some of Luo’s fall 2021 womenswear pieces. Metal-clasped safari jackets carry over, cut a bit looser, as do softened, almost pastel colors, the result of sharing fabrics across the collections. But where his women’s line had a celebratory primness to it, with pleated skirts and knee boots, his menswear offers a louche, casual look. He explains it as a nod to the ’70s, citing both punk and disco as starting points, though the Dolls and the Trammps don’t come to mind at first pass. Instead, Luo’s look reads modern and streetwise: roomy on top and baggy on bottom, dressed up but not dressy. It’s a fresh idea for the designer; glance backwards at his last few menswear shows and you’d see models tricked out in graphic treatments and too-conceptual ideas. A little mid-pandemic pause seems to have gone a long way, giving Luo a strong first step back into the men’s market.
22 April 2021
Calvin Luo is missing the real thing. For fall 2021, his 10th collection, he was hoping to present an in-person show in Shanghai, but the constantly changing restrictions made it impossible. To evoke the togetherness and drama of physical shows, he presented fall in three parts: runway, backstage, and front row. The first two required a photographer and videographer to capture models wearing his latest collection. The latter proved more ambitious: Over the course of three months, Luo sent his collection to 100 women, from musician Yaoke Zhao to model Cici Xiang, and asked that they style themselves in the garments and pose for photos that would be rendered into a virtual front row. The fact that 100 women would even agree to such a project—and that each looks comfortable and like herself in Luo’s clothing—is a testament to both his strength as a designer and his warmth as a collaborator and friend.As for the garments, they are some of Luo’s strongest. He gave up flashy complications and a strict theme in favor of rethinking signatures from his five years in business. Proper jackets with metal fastenings are worn with pleated midiskirts; organza camp shirts with embroidered orange blurs are paired with chic long shorts; and double-strap tanks are layered with plaid A-line skirts. Even at its most playful—yes, there are dramatic feather gowns—the collection speaks to a tasteful reservedness. The small flecks of joy, like a color-blocked rose and green jacket or the feathers that trim a pastel pink skirtsuit, feel in step with the mood of early 2021: cautiously optimistic. Luo is smart to deliver something not too over the top but still with simple pleasures.
6 March 2021
Robert Motherwell’sElegies to the Spanish Republic, a series of over 100 abstract paintings made by the artist from the ’40s to the ’60s, inspired Calvin Luo’s spring 2021 collection. The works are enormous canvases with bisecting black shapes, mostly ovals and rectangles, with the occasional streak of cinnamon or cobalt. Over the phone, Luo said the paintings “kind of represent death” to him. “There has been a lot of bad energy, some negative vibes, and a terrible death worldwide as well,” he continued. Darkness is certainly a fair mood for now; Luo’s home, China, was impacted first by COVID-19, and the global toll of the virus is well over 1 million dead.The beginning looks of Luo’s spring 2021 collection are in simple black and white, echoing the paintings, with circular cuts at the neck or on the hem of a blazer. Most of these garments are also layered in a trompe l’oeil manner; one blazer is actually a vest worn over a jacket, another is composed of a pleated skirt with a lapel halter worn atop a cropped bolero, giving the effect of a dress. The effect is graphic and clever—and the dramatic styling gives it a sort of lethal look.But Luo’s severity does gives way to hope. Embroidered flowers crawl up a minidress and cerulean midi skirt. Bows appear on necks and bubble hems on minis, and the palette softens to navy, pastel blue, and gold. As the collection winds to an end, Luo incorporates a custom fabric made from overlaying dozens of different colors of thread on organza. The final jacket is entirely handmade from white organza. “I don’t want to design something too dramatic,” he said, “but I still want to add some couture skills.” Think of it as a small sign of hope: Even in the darkest times beauty and care persist.
3 October 2020
Calvin Luo canceled his Paris Fashion Week presentation on account of the coronavirus. In these extenuating circumstances, Vogue Runway has made an exception to its policy and is writing about this collection via photos and remote interviews.Calvin Luo stands out among his generation of young designers for his ability to pull together disparate and fabulous references. His shows are typically of the narrative ilk, increasingly rare in contemporary fashion, and conclude with dramatic eveningwear often adorned in paillettes and feathers. But the arrival of the coronavirus in China prompted Luo to rethink his design ethos. As he began work on this collection in December, he conducted interviews with women of all strokes—journalists, influencers, lawyers—asking each what she wanted from her wardrobe during these difficult times.“I learned that they all feel like health and comfort is a priority,” Luo said over the phone from Shanghai. “They feel like right now people have less opportunities to go out or attend social events and activities, and that there is a downturn for the economy and for businesses. Women have less budget to shop.”With these new realities in mind, the designer focused on functionality and pragmatism for fall 2020. In a palette of khaki, black, and denim blue, Luo’s garments are multipurpose: Most of the outerwear converts into gilets or waistcoats. Knitwear is trompe l’oeil, with twinsets actually made as a single garment. Luo’s love of couture shapes and techniques remains—dramatic full skirts and braiding details still appear, but are used more sparingly than previously. His beloved feathers have similarly been reduced to boa accessories and headpieces. Stripping away the excess, Luo has designed garments that feel right for this moment.
13 April 2020
For the first time Calvin Luo is presenting a standalone menswear collection. (Usually, a smattering of guys walks in his women’s shows.) One reason for the shift is publicity—a sparkling cocktail frock can draw attention from straight-leg men’s trousers. Another is Luo’s growing menswear business, which is taking off in China and becoming a bigger presence in Europe, too.As with Luo’s women’s, his men’s clothing is laden with allusions and meaning. In a press release—the designer was stuck in China due to Coronavirus quarantines—he namechecked references like Frank Gehry and Rubik’s cubes. The vibe, naturally, is geometric, with trapezoidal insets and cut-outs serving as the season’s main motifs alongside diagonal lines of crystals (inspired, perhaps, by Gehry’s undulating 8 Spruce Street). But where Gehry‚ and even Rubik, have injected a kinetic motion into their designs, Luo’s reads somewhat stiff. Layered together in the lookbook, these plunging V knits and half-zip tops have a strong visual appeal, but hanging on a rack, it’s hard to imagine a body moving freely within them. Maybe Luo’s men should get back on the runway—dressing models in motion could infuse a little more ease into his considered geometries.
31 January 2020
Whoever said narrative fashion is dead clearly hasn’t met Calvin Luo. The designer arrived at Paris Fashion Week with a fully realized ode to the city, its history, and its life. The collection was tripartite: First, Luo imagined a walk with his muses along the Boulevard des Capucines at around 8 p.m. in the ’80s or ’90s. Then, he arrived at rue Montmartre and swung into the ’60s and ’70s by 10 p.m. And come midnight he was on the rue Royale, rethinking the couture of the ’40s and ’50s. If it sounds a littleMidnight in Paris–ish, that’s intentional; Woody Allen’s love letter romanticizing the city’s past served as Luo’s ideological jumping-off point.But the point of Allen’s film is that one cannot successfully live in the past. In the clothing, Luo created modern updates to well-trod staples. Bourgeois blazers and pleated skirts were layered over disco paillettes. Western chevrons were cut in glamorous beaded fringe. A feather frock was in sorbet stripes, cut quite slim so a contemporary Adriana could shove her way through the crowded nightclubs of her own midnights. This kind of storytelling and compiling of eras, genres, and ideas didn’t always work—a gold-flecked ball skirt with a hipbone-baring leotard felt like a big stylistic stretch—but Luo deserves to be commended for setting the bar high for his Paris debut.
24 September 2019
Calvin Luo designs his collections with an editor’s eye. Not only is he the founder of his eponymous men’s and women’s label, but he also startedRouge Fashion Book, China’s first independent art and fashion magazine. Released biannually, it’s something of a blue book for up-and-coming creatives in Asia, and Luo taps established artists from around the world to come collaborate with them. That well-rounded approach has given him some clarity on how to present and position a collection to international press and buyers. Fall 2019 marked the first time he put men’s and women’s on the same runway in an attempt to tell a more complete story (and because many of the pieces were actually unisex).The 1980s and ’90s were on Luo’s mind this season, specifically the music scene, but he’s finding as much inspiration in the way his friends in New York and Shanghai are reinterpreting those tropes in 2019. The results felt less hackneyed than straight-up nostalgia: There were “power dresser” suits with pumped-up shoulders; punk latex trousers; graphic “zebra” dresses, which revealed Luo’s logo within the stripes; and clean, sumptuous coats in double-face patchwork wool. Certain details harked back to prior decades, like those bold shoulders (’80s) and rave-style crop tops (’90s), but most of the collection felt tethered to 2019. Backstage, stylist Tom Van Dorpe pointed out items that were statement-making, but not over the top; wearable, but not boring. It’s a balance that translates nicely on the sales floor. There was a vaguely Western button-down in plush jersey, like an elevated sweatshirt, and guys and girls alike modeled the dark-rinse wide-leg jeans. The women’s pair came with deep cuffs in brown tweed; Van Dorpe said his most elegant friends in Paris will wear them with a simple cashmere sweater.
15 February 2019
Calvin Luo designs his collections with an editor’s eye. Not only is he the founder of his eponymous men’s and women’s label, but he also startedRouge Fashion Book, China’s first independent art and fashion magazine. Released biannually, it’s something of a blue book for up-and-coming creatives in Asia, and Luo taps established artists from around the world to come collaborate with them. That well-rounded approach has given him some clarity on how to present and position a collection to international press and buyers. Fall 2019 marked the first time he put men’s and women’s on the same runway in an attempt to tell a more complete story (and because many of the pieces were actually unisex).The 1980s and ’90s were on Luo’s mind this season, specifically the music scene, but he’s finding as much inspiration in the way his friends in New York and Shanghai are reinterpreting those tropes in 2019. The results felt less hackneyed than straight-up nostalgia: There were “power dresser” suits with pumped-up shoulders; punk latex trousers; graphic “zebra” dresses, which revealed Luo’s logo within the stripes; and clean, sumptuous coats in double-face patchwork wool. Certain details harked back to prior decades, like those bold shoulders (’80s) and rave-style crop tops (’90s), but most of the collection felt tethered to 2019. Backstage, stylist Tom Van Dorpe pointed out items that were statement-making, but not over the top; wearable, but not boring. It’s a balance that translates nicely on the sales floor. There was a vaguely Western button-down in plush jersey, like an elevated sweatshirt, and guys and girls alike modeled the dark-rinse wide-leg jeans. The women’s pair came with deep cuffs in brown tweed; Van Dorpe said his most elegant friends in Paris will wear them with a simple cashmere sweater.
15 February 2019
Back in May Lady Gaga stepped out in one of Calvin Luo’s elegant suits while leaving Electric Lady Studios. In the neon tweed number and a ’50s-style bouffant, the pop star took Luo’s bad girl–themed Fall collection and turned it into something demure. The mood of that moment appears to have had an effect on Luo, who grounded his latest offerings in vintage gentility, filling his runway with even more smart suits and transforming Spring Studios into a garden party complete with a classical orchestra.Inspired by the filmLes Femmes de l’ombre, which recounts the story of Lise de Baissac, the French special-operations heroine of the Second World War, Luo sought to create clothes for powerful women with a glamorous side. The influence of the ’30s and ’40s was evident in check-covered trench coats, pencil skirts, and blouses with boxy shoulders, but Luo revamped the classics with unexpected touches. A layer of marabou at the bottom of a skirt is a surefire way to make things seem dreamy, while chevron lace inserts spiced up otherwise normal cropped trousers.Though certain elements verged into excess—a periwinkle lace cocktail dress with fabric accents at the hips had too much bustle for its own good—the collection found its footing when Luo layered embellishment onto easy, accessible pieces. His appealing cardigans with pearl buttons, feathered skirts, and cheerful printed day dresses are sure to please fans whether or not they’re pop royalty.
14 September 2018
The appeal of bad girls is eternal, and this season Calvin Luo was drawn to the Elvis-era beauties whose defiant streak inspired some of the best in vintage fashion. “The look comes from the ’50s subculture,” shared Luo pre-show. “I wanted to mix that retro style and combine some of those American rock ’n’ roll elements to show that spirit; everything is young and rebellious.” Pointing to shots of greaser girls mid–smoke break and their ’70s punk counterparts, Luo steeped his collection in the slinky Americana, with models sporting kerchiefs looped around their necks and transparent bobby socks. The second look, a shimmering off-the-shoulder top covered in Luo’s interlocking logo and worn with satin trousers, captured the modern-day Rizzo feel.There was plenty to admire among Luo’s offerings. Color-blocked knits called to mind collegiate sweaters with an added touch of cool; plaid suits in unexpected shades of acid yellow and olive offered a twist on the traditional; and a lineup of newly launched menswear gave boys the opportunity to play in Luo’s sandbox. Nodding to the minimalist canvas of Brice Marden via a selection of moody jewel tones contrasted by bright belts, Luo included his art history moment, but the collection’s high points didn’t need a reference. Standout pieces included coats covered in pastel poufs of faux fur and tulle hoodies that added gauzy contrast to textured shifts. They showcased the inventiveness that makes Luo a talent to watch.
16 February 2018
For his Spring collection, Calvin Luo had the heroines of Sofia Coppola on his mind. “I was really thinking aboutThe Virgin Suicides,” shared Luo backstage. “Of course, there’s a littleMarie Antoinettein there, too.” Luo’s cinematic points of reference proved fruitful—it would be easy to imagine Kirsten Dunst in any of the breezy dresses he sent down the runway. Luo took over the first floor of the Whitney Museum of American Art and offered his version of the laid-back style that has become synonymous with California. By capturing Coppola’s worldview rather than creating versions of the now-iconic Nancy Steiner and Milena Canonero costumes, he delivered a collection focused on girlhood and suburbia.Starting with a transparent metallic number with a ruched waist, Luo went ’90s, giving his audience slip dresses embellished with lace, bubble sunglasses, and cropped jackets reminiscent of boleros. At times, unwieldy details like elongated knee-length sleeves or tulle accents on denim skirts felt unnecessary, but they were balanced by effective moments. By using drawstrings on skirts and dresses to create asymmetrical shapes, offering colorful knit frocks with intricate weaving, and playing with metallic pleats, the designer showcased his technique while having fun. By the time model Deion Smith skateboarded through the crowd, showing off the transparent mesh knitwear Luo presented for men, the audience was in a pretty good mood, too.
13 September 2017