FOR those who don't know the young men behind the scorching hot label Proenza Schouler - Jack McCullough and Lazaro Hernandez - enjoy a road trip. Take spring/summer 2010's scuba-inspired collection featuring neoprenes and sweltering neons that served as a nod to California surf culture, or last season's wildly successful, and utterly soignée, rendition of Navajo patterns - a response to a recent trip to the arid Southwest. Tonight, too, they showed a collection whose foundation was highly inspired by a sense of place.
Their spring/summer 2012 collection was not derived solely from a sense of location, but also from an era. Upon entering the hangar-like warehouse, the first thing that seemed curious was the runway, divided into many single rows, ensuring that everyone was a front row spectator. The catwalk itself was blanketed with thick shag carpeting in a tan colour, an unusual choice, no doubt. The pre-show music was a primitive drum beat, and continued throughout the show.
The first look was a long-sleeve nylon jersey jacket with matching shorts in black with wood grain-printed inserts on the torso. The equation of faux wood and the carpets suggested a gaudy seventies basement. Look three introduced a yellow botanical print on a cropped poplin shirt with a petit collar and tromp l'oeil front placket, revealing the destination that had been consuming the duo's imagination: Hawaii. The introduction of bandeau tops, swimwear-esque bodysuits, tightly woven raffia dresses reminiscent of hula skirts and an island-y palette of coral and chartreuse only reinforced the fact that we were on a tropical vacation by way of the swinging Seventies, an age of louche glamour and decadence. While the prints and colours were decidedly retro, the shapes were unmistakably modern, svelte and feline in their strict tailoring, sure to show off the curves of a woman. Clunky-wedged heels and miniaudiéres were the season's covetable accessories.
Though there was a demonstrative cheekiness to the collection, it did bring to mind the kitsch of Miuccia Prada's past two spring collections. Skirts wrapped like saris sat high on the hip and necklines were sleeveless, off-the-shoulder or of the sweetheart variety which highlighted a shapely figure. The last dresses had more of an upscale quality, covered arms and glittering embroideries, while remaining chipper and upbeat.
Though affixing a collection to such specific references can render them either lifeless or overly-nostalgic, McCullough and Hernadez know themselves, and their customer, too well to allow it from becoming bogged down in clichés. We've seen the pair tackle many tropes with steely confidence and gusto, producing consistently excellent results. Once again they've shown a mastery of unearthing the unforeseen vibrancy from even the most world-weary muses.
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