A New York Love Letter, Signed By Women's History Museum

February 09, 2024

Positioned down the street from a glorious Gothic church and the heady financial institutions of Wall Street, Women’s History Museum’s propensity to surprise was on full display for their FW24 presentation. Preoccupation with covering the body was the unspoken rule of the night. It’s a central tenet of Mattie and Amanda’s observations of life in New York, “suiting up to protect those they adorn from real and imagined hazardous materials” as show notes read.

Following visual and sensorial themes of the city, the collection was soundtracked in a flurry of deep-techno by friend of the brand Amber Bradford, an ER nurse who moonlights as a muse and creative influence. Other musical heavyweights included Sausha in the front row and Club Eat walking in a bright-green ensemble and a dramatic up-do. From skin-hugging corsetry to artful bodysuits bearing script (Brisket, Loin, and Soupbone on one set), and an expansive cape connecting two models, the range of fabrication was complex. The text across pieces explored the rare dynamic that the creative team shares — a long-term female design duo in the New York fashion space.

Words Sam Falb
Photos Emma McLoughlin

“The connected dresses were inspired by our relationship, codependency, and what it means to be a merged entity,” Mattie and Amanda shared.

There was a clear exploration into the realm of the animalistic, with headwear combining feathers and other decidedly birdlike silhouettes, along with models bathed in the uniquely bright orange hue and black stripes of a tiger. A beekeeper’s headpiece was adorned in a delicate, lace veil, with the rest of the ensemble culminating in slitted tights and deliciously dramatic high, white boots. “We love to explore the aspect of being othered in society, highlighting marginalized genders, and deconstructing a living being,” the duo noted.

The brand brought together a spirited throng of longtime supporters and new converts across New York’s culture ecosystem: (artist Jade Guanaro Kuriki-Olivo was a seat-mate, and writer Whitney Mallet was a line-mate), stylists Marissa Baklayan and Haley Wollens were present, and a splash of Hollywood talent à la Hunter Schafer and Amandla Stenberg were sprinkled in.

Barring any notion of the stoic, certain looks were greeted by impassioned cheers, and the clubby bass of the music was welcomed with head-bobs and light movement throughout the show. In a cavernous, raw space with open-floor seating and a sweeping wooden balcony around the periphery, Women’s History Museum did what they do best: creating a world that is both entrancing and welcoming, promising and suggestive of something entirely new.

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For years, she stood still, watching life rush past her, a quiet observer behind the glass. Now, the glass is broken, and she steps out into the unknown. She walks through the city, caught between two worlds—part of it, yet apart from it.

Her journey is quiet but bold, searching for something she’s never understood, something just out of reach. On church steps and under glowing city lights, she questions everything: the rules, the past, and where she truly belongs. Each step feels both freeing and uncertain.

A curious soul in a borrowed life, she keeps moving forward, leaving behind only whispers of her escape, like a fleeting shadow in the night.