Public School: DACA and dreamers on their mind

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Sep 10, 2017

Turns out there is life after LVMH, and nobody is enjoying it more than Public School, who staged a brilliant assemblage of street style, novel materials and gutsy cutting in a show in a battered passage in Chinatown. 

The invitation was a cheap pink plastic convenience store bag, the same material used in T-Shirts that peaked out from beneath a natty new garment – a track jacket that morphed into a mini cocktail. The key material, though, was a graphic plaid, whose very roughness added to the punch of the collection – appearing in mini tank tops, fanny packs, and sporty dresses. A path-breaking collection also in terms of cutting – as white, semi-sheer nylon trenches were cut as cocktail dresses; while sweatshirts became mini dresses, finished in mixes of khaki and white and completed with a new logo courtesy of a link-up with Nike – the famed Michael Jordan leaping design over PSNY.

Presented to great acclaim, the design duo of Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne trotted down the tatty 80-meter passage to rousing applause. Last December, the pair quit Donna Karan – where they had been joint creative directors – after LVMH sold the house to G-III. However, they have brilliantly bounced back with the gutsiest collection  of their career.

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“We took our cue from the plastic bag. Everyday items that are discarded and often overlooked. Just how immigrants’ contributions are often overlooked too. Clear plastic, woven plaid and Chinese laundry bags. We re-purposed lots for this show,” said Dao-Yi, wearing a baseball cap that read DACA Dreamers, in support of youthful immigrants now threatened with deportation by the Trump administration.
 
Standing beside him, Osborne proudly pointed to a nearby boutique.
 
“The Michael logo is a collaboration with Nike, and the result is this is Pop Up store. It opens right now!” exclaimed Maxwell, pointing to a wrecked plywood entrance, from which hung white T-Shirts reading Canal Arcade to already celebrate the collection. Even before the show had begun, over 200 youthful fashionistas were waiting patiently outside for the store opening.