7 Days S/S '20

Check out some exclusive backstage photos from the show below.

Fashion

Office Hours at the K.NGSLEY School for Girls

The week after his show, I paid Kingsley Gbadegesin a visit at his office in DUMBO to talk about the Kingsley School for Girls and the evolution of his brand.

Congratulations on the show! How are you feeling now?

I feel cute! I feel cute. Three days before, there was just a sense of calm. I’m someone who always knows what they want, especially when I see it. I'm so happy that I work with a group of people who have the right synergy — I really feel like first and foremost there is an energy that we create, so I'm happy that all of us came together. The last days before the show, it just made sense. I felt really confident. I mean, life was happening but like, she's always gonna happen. But when I just saw [the collection] I was just like, “CORRECT!” You know, so that's how I feel. [laughs]

Can you tell me a little bit about how the idea for this collection came about?

The idea of the collection came from a kiki from our first show. At the end, everyone was just really happy that the show was over. I remember we had our model board still up, and Noah, who works with us, is like, “the Kingsley School for Girls!” or something like that.

We were like, yes, Kingsley School for Girls, like this was the first class! You know, I didn't think much of it at that time. Last June was the first time that concept came back into my head. And as we just kept on building out this collection, it just reverted back to that energy because we work with a school of people. There's a school of girls that make all of this happen.

The first thing that we did that brought the whole collegiate energy in was when we made our Bushwick graphic. I love it. I mean, look at this. The University of Bushwick!

I’m not lying, I need one of those. When I lived there, my best friend and I used to always joke that Bushwick was my college.

I lived in Bushwick for like six years, and I'm 30 now. It really molded me — as a creative, as a person, you know, like everybody and their mother lived in Bushwick. I just recently moved to BedStuy about a year ago, but I'm super thankful for Bushwick and I wanted to pay tribute to it because there is an exuberant amount of talent in Bushwick. The people that gave me the audacity to be me, are people I know from Bushwick. So that was one of the first things, before we even came to “school for girls,” it was, “how do we honor Bushwick?”

This piece we did in November of last year actually. It became this world that something can be true and false at the same time. Bushwick can be very grunge, very lo-fi, it can be chaotic, but there's also beauty in that, there’s resilience in that, there’s a sharpness that comes with that. And there's no shame. I mean, you graduate! You go through Bushwick, it puts you through a school of its own, and you graduate and you take all of that with you.

Some of my dear friends who also have businesses like Syro and LEAK come out of Bushwick. So I was just really really happy to have a true ode to it.

Is there a piece or element of this collection that you would say you're the most excited about?

In the design meeting, we were like, what is the “live, laugh, love,” of Bushwick? First we did the insignia, the crest with the poppers. While we were joking, I said “Mind, Body, Hole,” and everybody was just like, “Yes, pin it to the board! We're doing it!” And then we did it, and I'm so happy that everyone has just been… getting it! And we also dressed it up, with this very schoolboy energy.

Something else that I'm also really excited about is the reinvention of the polo, which does really, really well for us. I wanted to take something that we've done before and bring it into this new era of the collection. We actually designed this just a month ago. You can see the raw edges, and one thing that I really love about it is that it's a French terry.

The whole purpose of my brand is that it’s every-day, you know, but there's a refined, contemporary tailoring to it. I say this all the time, your clothes have to be able to do more for you. This is something that you can dress up, and you can dress down. You could have dinner with your parents and then you can also be with your girls right after and that vibe would still carry.

I love it. Can you tell me more about the denim pieces?

Denim has been a new pillar for us, which I'm really excited about. Last season we did the Raver Denim, which took off to a lot of success, the denim that we had with the little gap — we said “pubes are in!” [laughs] So, these are basically the same style that the girls love, we just covered it up this season in the front for the “modest” girls.

And this season we made this denim corset. This collection is light on tanks, and we kind of did that on purpose. We really wanted to show that while we may always continue to give you a version of a tank — it's our core and we are the house that was built on tanks, and we're super thankful for it —- but with this elevation, we wanted to expand it a little bit. So this is like our original two-way tank made into ready-to-wear, but we gave you girls construction, we gave you boning, we gave you girls serious tailoring, but also hoe, serious hoe — she owns 51% of this company and you better know it!

That’s the energy that I was really excited to play with this scene and this show.

Wow, yeah. I love that. Even since the original tank, what I’ve always loved about K.NGSLEY was how you design for Black queer people in ways that allow us to be feminine, but serious. Because so often if we are represented by the mainstream, either we’re masc, or we’re fem but it’s as comedic relief.

Honestly, it’s a love letter to me, to myself and my people - to be able to embody both. It's very me, I'm this person. In the beginning of the brand, I had a hard time finding acceptance, but at the end of the day, it's what makes me, me. I'm soft and I can be strong at the same time.

I’m really happy with how I’ve been able to manifest this season — it’s strong, it’s serious, there’s serious craft that went into it. It’s just made really well. One textile I was really excited about was from a mill in Paris that does most of Chanel’s tweed. I love how used the same textiles in the same playing field as Chanel, but brought the K.NGSLEY energy to it. With the help of my amazing design team, we’ve been able to work with some of the best factories in the world and can’t wait for you all to see what’s to come.

Fashion

A New Era for Gucci

The inaugural volume, titled "ANCORA," serves as a heartfelt ode to Milan and is the brainchild of curator Stefano Collicelli Cagol. Yet, it carries hints of a grittier, northern European metropolis. Milan, too, boasts an unforgettable underground culture, portrayed through imagery evoking youthfulness, rebellion, dimly lit spaces, crimson hues, and visceral intensity. It almost harks back to the artistic landscapes cultivated by VIRUS in the early 80s within the same district. The book teases readers with enigmatic phrases like "your silence empties me" and presents canvas marked by knife cuts. Could this foreshadow a darker, more edgy Gucci? As the market undergoes inevitable transformations, so do the brands. The question remains, to what extent?

Regardless of the direction taken, our expectations for today's debut have been significantly elevated.

Fashion

Ben Doctor Wants to Dress Your Downtown Fantasy

Hi Ben! Congratulations on your first NYFW presentation. How did it feel?

Thank you so much. I can’t lie, it probably was the most incredible experience of my entire life. The energy of backstage, working with everyone, the models, the stylists, hair and makeup… It was like this impossible and amazing thing. I’m still a little bit in disbelief that it all even happened, or that we were able to pull it off the way we did.

How did your community play a role in the production and presentation of your first show?

It was probably the only way we were able to produce the show. Really my producer, Fefi Martinez, is a miracle worker. We were just calling in favors left and right. We were just trying to find people that understood our financial situation, but still wanted to make something happen. It was less about finding people who were willing, but more about reaching out to people that were excited about the project and wanted to be involved. So in a cheesy way community was what made this all possible.

Were you surprised by the turnout of your presentation and how graciously your collection was received?

I cannot explain to you how shocked I was backstage. I think the moment Fefi told me there was a line it all set in. I was like, fuck, this is really going to happen right now. I was taking shots of Soju backstage trying to just relax right before the show. But it definitely put on the pressure that there were so many people showing out. It all felt like an accident.

The way it was received was a relief. It wasn’t all for nothing, I thought, and I think just feeling that way is enough.

You describe your show as being your last ditch effort at fulfilling a fantasy of New York City that you have long put faith into – what does that fantasy look like?

The show was supposed to describe this futile effort to embody an old New York, filled with thriving economy, living in “Soho”, hanging out with “Chloe Sevigny”, something like that. But it was more like this irony of saying goodbye to an old fantasy while fulfilling a new one, which was putting on the show itself. My New York fantasy has already happened by presenting the collection and telling this story that I think resonates with a lot of young New Yorkers.

This collection is titled “Rotten Goodbye” – do you feel yourself staying in New York, and continuing to be inspired by/disillusioned with the city?

I hope! I love to joke about how I’ll have to leave any minute as I barely scrape by month-to-month. But I’m so stubborn and determined to make it work out and land on my feet somehow. The city is so contradictory, but in that is a lot to work with in Fashion, so I think I’ll continue to try and make work here.

How helpful do you feel like the delusion of the grandeur of the city is to young creatives like yourself?

I think what it might do is it provokes people to feel like they have to make something. Either art or something of themselves. But I think lots of people feel cheated. We were promised lots of things that don’t exist anymore. You get here and enter this weird milieu of people nostalgic for a time in art or culture that’s long gone and it’s kind of depressing.

Your collection is obviously inspired by the style of the1950s/60s. Amongst the references to Pop Art + Mod style, the clothes also seem to possess a slightly eerie domesticity and conservatism. How did you balance the beauty with the rottenness throughout your design process?

It felt really exciting trying to find new ways to combine these two ideas. Lots of color and pattern was referencing '50s ginghams, and this kind of prim and buttoned up way of dressing. Some of the silhouettes too. Then having something grungier like fringe or cutouts or muddying the color can just bring it into this new story. It’s a tricky balance because I really wanted the garments to still feel controlled, so I let these added elements do most of the storytelling.

What artists or creatives do you see wearing and fitting into the Ben Doctor world? What does the ‘Ben Doctor Girl’ look like?

It would be so iconic if Anna Delvey wore my clothes. I think she is the epitome of this aspirational glamor of New York that you literally need to scam your way into. I really admire her, and actually wanted her to come to the show but heard she’s still under house arrest. I see my clothes being worn by the girl who still believes in the city, and the promises it brings, and can acknowledge the beauty in its ugliness. She has 30 dollars in her bank account, but she puts a 300 dollar pair of shoes on her credit card. Because that’s the world we live in.