intelligencer
From the Cut:
A Smaller, Bigger
Fashion Week
Kerby Jean-Raymond and his
choir take the Kings Theatre.
By Cathy Horyn
during Tom Ford’s first season as chair-
man of the Council of Fashion Designers of
America, a shortened and stuffed Fashion
Week went everywhere: the Apollo Theater in
Harlem for Tommy Hilfiger, the Brooklyn
Navy Yard for Michael Kors, an abandoned
subway station on the Bowery for Ford. In
Flatbush, 90 minutes before the Pyer Moss
show at the historic Kings Theatre, the line
swept down the block, and at 10 p.m., well after
the scheduled start, there were thousands of
people outside. Finally, around 10:30, things
got going. A choir of some 60 strong filed in,
dominating the massive stage, and a small
band settled into the pit, framed by a low run-
way. Then the author Casey Gerald came out
and spoke for several minutes about enslave-
ment and freedom. “We’re here tonight,” he
said, “to claim our wings.” After that, the fash-
ion show began.
Pyer Moss creative director Kerby Jean-
Raymond violated almost every convention of
the fashion world: the late-night show, the
tone of seriousness (in the past, he has done
shows around depression and his relationship
with his father). He has consistently used
musical performances—typically a choir—
which have grown in size and quality. He
chooses collaborators and sources of inspira-
tion that touch him but whose names are fairly
obscure, like Richard Phillips, who spent over
45 years in prison before being exonerated and
whose artwork was used for prints, and Sister
Rosetta Tharpe, who is often referred to as “the
Godmother of Rock and Roll.” Jean-Raymond’s
clothes, mostly tailored pieces in solid hues—
some with a detail that evoked a keyboard or
the curve of a guitar—considered rock in its
infancy, from the perspective of a woman who
probably crafted her own outfits. “I want to
show what that ingenuity would look like,”
Jean-Raymond said, telling reporters back-
stage that he doesn’t care if he sells any clothes.
Well, okay, he wants to stay free in his head.
But the talent and ideas on his engaging run-
way deserve a wider presence in the world. ■
20 new york | september 16–29, 2019