PROENZA SCHOULER SPRING 2010

The Spring 2010 collection from Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler seemed fuss-free, more straight-forward and less precious than their past collections. Perhaps getting socked in the face by Keifer Sutherland forced the boys to toughen up. The collection opened with a black double breasted coat with a raised shoulder. It had a look that suggested it’d been thrown on after being rescued in a ball at the back of some dark closet. This was paired with a sports jacket skirt slung around the waist.

There was a sportiness to the collection but some pieces looked like they were picked up at Nike, the running pants with rounded inserts were no exception. There was a chic tank dress with a flappy insert tracing across the body and some grungy tie-dye long sleeve t-shirts looked great. I saw a bit of Balenciaga in those tops. It’s probably incidental but the tops and the high-shine fabrics recalled the work of Nicolas Ghesquiere. I thought maybe they were inspired by beetles with their reflective, high shine wings. It turns out scuba diving and tropical fish were the inspirations.

The shoes were amazing, accented with hot pink and yellow. They’re building a fast reputation for must-have accessories which is always an important step for a growing brand such as PS.