Opening with a performance from Brooklyn-born star Nas, and staged in the landmark New York Public Library, the show is a personal love letter to the neighborhoods of New York. In a city where everyone is a stranger, where everyone is from somewhere else, neighborhoods are what make New York home.
The words ‘Neighborhood Kings’ are emblazoned throughout the collection because, in this show, everyone – no matter where they come from – is a king of their own hood.
There are no barriers here: music, style, race, gender, everything is mixed together. There is no distinction between women’s and menswear: the girls wear boys’ t-shirts and hoodies; the boys wear girls’ jackets and even dresses. There is no distinction between streetwear and couture: an embroidered evening dress is worn with a bomber jacket; an intarsia mink coat paired with a hoodie; thigh-high sneakers next to chinchilla heeled boots.
A closer inspection reveals that prints and patches also tell a tale of New York. The symbols of a dollar bill form the print on a fur-hooded coat, and Statue of Liberty and FBI –Fashion Beyond Imagination’- patches decorate sweatshirts and bombers.
