Fashion is often described as cyclical, endlessly repeating itself and acting as a centripetal force within popular culture. Something more interesting happens, however, when a brand becomes established enough to begin referencing itself. Approaching the brand’s ten-year milestone, Bryn Taubensee and Patric DiCaprio created a full-circle, self-referential elegy to the Vaquera of their younger years. The collection came off the back of the announcement of a name change: Vaquera NYC, as it has been known for so long, will become Vaquera Paris. This movement towards a more grown-up iteration of the brand, now showing with the big leagues, was reflected throughout the collection, titled “I’m a put-on-a-show kind of girl”. The spirit of New York, however, was still there, as cheekily palpable as ever.
The show constructed the meeting between past and present via its set design; the looks were presented against a gilded staircase, complete with showgirl-esque scarlet carpeting. It called to mind the old-world glamour of both New York and Paris. The clothes similarly played out a fantasy of the two cities. Look seventeen recalled 1920s Gatsby-inspired golfwear, pairing a sporting knit and capris with a flash of a neon bra, puncturing the nostalgia. In look twenty-nine, a large tweed hat and two-tone pumps invoked the visual language favored by Gabrielle Chanel. The cropped menswear jacket retained Chanel’s traditional boyishness, while its shrunken proportions and popped collar recast the silhouette through the androgyny of a 1970s East Village musician. By look thirty-three, Cecil Beaton’s costumes for My Fair Lady appeared as another possible reference: monochrome, feathers and larger-than-life headwear. In place of the customary fan came a feather duster, subverting and playing with visual class motifs in a way that felt fundamentally American.
Throughout the collection, the spectre of Vaquera’s Fall/Winter 2017 show loomed particularly large. Preoccupied, as ever, with the American Dream and its tropes, the designers had sent a Tiffany-blue “Vaquera & Co” pouch dress down the runway. The show notes also asked, “Do we really want to look French?”, ironically answering with a French maid and a chef’s hat. This season, the maid and chef returned in look thirty-four and thirty-five, reimagined with satin playsuits and an organza apron. But the fantasy has shifted; Vaquera Paris, as it will soon be known, has aspired to new heights. Holly Golightly was present throughout (note the fabulously camp cigarette holders), only now she’s grown up.
The trench in look thirty-two retained the cinematic codes of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but a deconstructed white-tie waistcoat, stationed around the hips, replaced the literal iconography of past seasons. Elsewhere, the characteristic Vaquera irreverence was elevated to new, couture-ish heights. The first five models returned to close the show, their original white looks remade in striking neon satin as Taubensee and DiCaprio belted out "I Got You Babe," rendering the collection’s movement from past to present literal in a typically punkish fashion. The so-called "fashion fan fiction" that grounds Vaquera’s DNA felt more centered this time round. The fantasy has become reality, but thankfully, the attitude remains.
