Helmut Lang As Seen By Jeremy Deller

PUMA Creative Director June Ambrose led the presentation itself. office caught a moment with Ambrose before the show to discuss her inspirations for the collection, coming back to New York Fashion Week, and bringing FUTROGRADE to life.

How did you come up with "Futrograde"?

We were all sitting at a table putting a description of what we were trying actually to cover and accomplish. It was past, present, and future for the brand. I always play around and say, ‘Oh, you're in the Juniverse.’ We’re in Mercury retrograde, so I think about that, and I think about how retro is so much a part of what we see now. It’s the conversation that's driving everything as we creatives are pulling their point of reference, and I was a big part of retro moments that are being referenced now. This was definitely a moment for me to celebrate my contribution to the culture and also introduce Puma in a space where they could have a more amplified voice in streetwear.

Streetstyle is a universal expression now, and I wanted to celebrate how individuals are in urban environments. We have a section called ‘Beyond the Bodega,’ and it's about how we, as a culture, have gone beyond our environments and we have broken through many stereotypes quite successfully. We're pioneers. I wanted to give context to the fact that where this came from and celebrate that voice [streetwear] is the number one voice in fashion right now. Street sports style is eclipsing most conversations right now around high fashion brands; who would never think about making a sweatpant or anything that was leisure– yet they had to get on board. I've been playing with taking leisure sports out of context since the late 90s. I was doing luxury jogging suits and all that stuff, so this is an aha moment.

This is a fresh idea, and when I was starting, I referenced things; from the people who came before me. We all reference each other. It's about reimagining things and reinterpreting. It’s really an art form. It's all about expression and individualized interpretation. For me, it’s about telling that story. I'm a huge storyteller. So I've developed characters; I literally gave each model their character, their personality. When you look at each look, you can tell what kind of person they are and what they’re thinking. They don't take themselves too seriously. They're bold. They're playful. They're sporty. They're sophisticated. They're retro. They’re all these adjectives that come to play.

I love it. What made you want to stray away from the usual runway show? This was such high production.

The brand has been in conversations with the company Future for a while, and when I came on, they had quite a bit of visual context. I helped to put it into a frame and help to tell that story a little bit more cohesively, really breaking it out into sections, with ‘Beyond the Bodega,’ and Future was how I had to conceptualize it to make sense. Then I had to figure out how we merge existing products and create new products that would give us enough for a fashion show because we didn't want a traditional show.

We have existing select products that we wanted to introduce to the marketplace and amplify the fact that we're in this space and show our select retailers what we're focusing on. Taking the virtual reality of NFT's and how we mix tech and reality is really important. This is a space that’s happening, and we just want to be part of the conversation. So, we had to do a non-traditional show because of how we’re approaching it. Also, I think it's our point of view. It's our authentic intelligence. It's authentically speaking to the space. There’s nothing artificial about what we're doing tonight.

I think that you'll see that there's so much authenticity, and that's why I started the conversation off by talking about the layers of urban culture and how urban culture has eclipsed every genre of style. We own that. Without putting color into it, but putting a persona into it. It’s putting, ‘who are these people that are so creative, so brave, so bold, so brazen, and so non-apologetic.’ I talked to my models, and I told them to break through every obstacle that comes their way; everyone has said that for every door that was closed, you've chosen another; for every obstacle that was put in your way, you found a way through it.

Today we celebrate your strengths, your resilience, and what we've all been through in the last couple of years in this perfect setting. It is a powerful scene if you think about it in a very emotional, methodical way. We want the show to be emotional and provocative. We want the audience to sit here and feel like they're not just watching clothes, but they're experiencing something that is happening around us in our community. I think it's inclusive in a way. The casting was very intentional, I worked with Boom production and Raj in his casting, and that was really important that we captured what our society looks like and that we normalize inclusivity.

How was it designing the CO brand?

It was fun because there were no prerequisites. Even though it was collabs that I remixed some of the pieces, no one said to me. I couldn't touch this; they were actually excited that I was gonna go at it. And you know, I said to them, ‘They're gonna see me after the show, and either hug me or slap me.’ I got to launch my own first collab with the brand and my first co-branded collaboration with Puma, and I get to launch that tonight, which is exciting. I get to pay homage to someone within my capsule that I feel very proud of, that I've always wanted to grow up and be. I want her to know that she is seen and that she's enough. I celebrate her tonight on the stage.

Was it your daughter?

You'll have to watch the show and see. I know your relationship with her is really close. She walked through the door, and I just started crying. I'm so emotional, but I needed her to be here because my son, he's in charge of all my BTS as a filmmaker, and I just to kind of have their support. My husband called me this morning, and he said, ‘I'm so nervous.’ I get emotional. It’s an emotional day.

With heavy hitters like Dapper Dan on the runway! How are you feeling about that?

Dan’s not walking the show, but his collab is. I got a chance to really interpret his collaboration pieces and put a twist on them. It’s a great honor, he's an icon, so we greatly respect his contribution. You know, that's my guy. Yeah. It was really planned out. I look forward to seeing him and seeing what he thinks about it.

It's gonna be amazing. Last question, what is the inspiration for the show? I know you kind of shared that, but more focused on this question, what is it that you want people to take away from this show?

I talked earlier about the inspiration, that we’re in a retrograde, talking about everything that's happening. The world feels like we are being thrown back and thrown forward, and we have to be present. I want people to stop thinking about anything else other than what they're experiencing right now. No social media, no comparisons. No critics, just experience. What you're seeing and absorb it. Take some time to think about yourself and what manifested this; why is this the way it is? I think that we don't take a pause.

We took a pause during the pandemic, and we started to collect the people around us. We talked about what happened to us, what was happening to us, what we were grateful for, and what we were looking forward to. I want people to have that same experience tonight. I want them to be here, they belong here, they were chosen to be here, and that we see them, that we are a community, and that they matter—their opinions matter. We want them to take what they see today, tell a friend and tell someone they feel could be part of this Puma posse and grow the audience.

Tonight we have receipts that we want to read; we're reclaiming our space in opposition. In sports, curated select fashion, there's a consumer that we know that we can adopt. There's an existing consumer that needed to know that we see them. We want to develop and grow that muscle. That's my goal. That as a creative director and designer for the brand, I want to grow this audience, and I want to grow my customer so they know I'm working on developing their character. Style and design is always my point of view. That's what I want them to take away, that they’re in the Juniverse.