A--Company Puts on a Show
Rewriting the rules of fashion and exploring the body’s relationship to expression and culture, A–Company creates collections that urge the wearer to ponder: ‘How can I better understand my identity through the garments I choose to adorn my body with?’ In the ready-to-wear and accessory label’s Pre-Fall 2024 Collection, 9 ½, this internal exploration continues. Working within the framework of archetypal, quintessential silhouettes, the brand then deconstructs the expected through abnormal stitching, superimposed dual-garments, and varied textures. Jewelry from a recent collaboration with LL, LLC. was also featured on each cast member.
As each piece is truly highlighted while displayed in movement, the brand chose to showcase this capsule through the form of a one-act play in workshop. Hosted at Baryshnikov Arts Center, guests filed into their seats before the lights dimmed and the show captivated. Depicting Sophocles’ Antigone, this age-old tale reverberates the message that A–Company would like to bring forth with every collection: that personal dilemma will inevitably conjure moral conflict. And it is only through facing these discords that we may dismantle the expectations imposed upon us — upon gender roles, sexuality, or even what we are told we “can” and “can’t” wear — to build anew.
Though this play was originally written in 441 BC, the lessons interwoven through the story echo just as loudly today. Through an updated version written by Anne Carson, conceived by Sara Lopez, and directed by Daphné Dumons, the play itself is also subtly rewired and reimagined, just like the featured garments. The cast featured Rad Pereira, Sydney Lemmon, Jeremy O. Harris, Bobbie Salvör Menuez, Sophie Becker, Blake Abbie, and Diamond Stingily — who all selected their roles by chance through a draw, further actualizing the idea of democratizing gender roles, not only within art and fashion, but within life and performance.
As cast members worked through an imperfect, often interrupted rehearsal-style preview of the play, a trompe l’oeil evening dress caressed the wearer’s body, a tuxedo jacket was styled as a cape — almost falling off of the wearer with every gestural movement, and just when you thought you had figured out each piece, a new facet was revealed under the stage lights.
By working within these familiar clothing structures — crisp tailoring, approachable shapes, and muted color palettes — and then choosing to instill them with a non-traditional sense of whimsy, A–Company presented onlookers with a taste of the liberation that reconfiguration can bring. The complex and intricate ways that each piece can be worn are a direct representation of the complexity of the wearer, and A–Company urges all of its wearers to celebrate and embrace this tension.
As the theater’s overhead lights flooded the room once more and the cast took their final bows, I couldn’t help but think of the beloved, tongue-in-cheek line of dialogue from Euphoria’s hit Season 2 — “Wait. Is this fucking play about us?” And in true A–Company fashion, this play actually was. Not only did I envision myself in each eccentric garment as I watched the actors float from one stage marking to the next, but I was able to envision myself within the idyllic universe that the label manifests with every new collection, a universe that is not so out of our reach if we can open our hearts to the perpetual change that life brings.
