The A MAGAZINE team are delighted to congratulate Jack McCullough & Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler, upon their reception of the “Womenswear Designer of the Year” award at Monday night’s CFDA Awards. Jack & Lazaro were accompanied by actress Liv Tyler, wearing a belted halter dress from the designers’ Fall Winter 2011 collection.

This is not the first time the pair have been fêted by the Council of Fashion Designers of America, having scooped the same honour in 2007, the Accessories Designer of the Year in 2009, and the Perry Ellis award in 2003.

www.cfda.com
www.proenzaschouler.com

Via Interview Magazine, A BLOG offers an insightful and intimate conversation between long-time friends Chloë Sevigny and Proenza Schouler designers’ Jack McCullough and Lazaro Hernandez. From road trips to lost pooches, the trio discuss life, love, art & fashion in this candid piece.

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It has been nearly nine years since Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez – both 23 and fresh out of design school at Parsons The New School for Design, where they met and worked together as classmates-set up a womenswear label incorporating their mothers’ maiden names. Their almost instantaneous rise through the realms of the fashion world as Proenza Schouler-seemingly so unscripted that they hardly had a business model when they began-is the stuff of lightning New York success stories.

In the early 2000s, with many of the city’s top designers either retiring or fading out, the hunt was on for fresh, untapped talent, and Proenza Schouler had plenty of it. But as the decade wore on, something exquisite happened: The design duo wasn’t merely filling some vacant fashion niche. McCollough and Hernandez were creating a fully articulated, utterly unexpected sense of style for a young, urban, 21st-century woman. The designers referenced the past with certain shapes and layers-grunge, the 1960s-but didn’t get stuck in it. This woman walked with a street-tough, masculine gait. She was almost a veteran of raves and goth clubs, but was still new in the city and up for going out.

Proenza Schouler have become masters of precise, militaristic silhouettes that allow for radical plays of color and texture. The hues and prints are electric, the fabrics veer from thick and aggressive to fragile and surprisingly soft. For their Spring 2011 collection, they continued their evolution but added a feminine polish that suggested this art girl of their dreams could also be competent enough to be serious and dependable-an acid-house mix of knits, tweeds, and chiffon.

Now both 32, McCollough and Hernandez should finally be set free from their depiction as upstart fashion kids taking on the establishment. They’ve graduated to become the leaders of the charge. Still a couple, in and out of the studio, the two spend as much time in New York these days as they do either traveling for inspiration or hiding out upstate on their farm. Unsurprisingly, one of their favorite women to dress is Chloë Sevigny, who just returned to New York after wrapping the final season of Big Love and visited the guys in their studio in SoHo. But before any questions on life as designers, she wanted the lowdown on how Jojo, Hernandez’s miniature Pinscher, briefly went missing, only to have Sevigny come to the rescue, 2,000 miles away.

READ THE INTERVIEW AT INTERVIEWMAGAZINE.COM

Portrait by Craig McDean, Jack & Lazaro both wear Jil Sander.

For Fall Winter 2011, A#9‘s curators Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler seemingly took a trip to the American West creatively. It was as if a N.Y. socialite jaunted over to Sante Fe or Jackson Hole and applied her newly found fabrics, fringes and colors to the shapes and silhouettes of the city. The wool jacquard patterns used throughout the collection were mesmerizing – a strong mix of statements – yet when layered upon bare skin, left you with graphic bliss. Pinning down the colour story is not an easy fete, as the collection touched on tribal earths all the way to a print that recalled mother-of-pearl. Perhaps that is part of the Proenza Schouler charm – taking a few visits to understand the complexity of the entire creative statement.

In between the moments of viscose knits and tweed coats one nearly took a breath when a black/crimson double-faced wool dress came down the runway, simple perhaps but near perfection with its cross-construction and sharp lines. And the shoes: somewhere between the city and Sedona! McCollough and Hernandez crafted a range of heels that could easily navigate any formal affair, open in the front with moments of black leather diamonds crawling up your back calf. The perfect compliment to a collection heavy in panne velvet dress or macrame skirt wouldn’t you say?

What was most impressive about this collection was the designers’ ability to take traditional themes and make them look sophisticated and sexy.

Text and photography by Kristopher Houser, New York.

A BLOG curated by took a look at the Paris showroom for Proenza Schouler’s Pre-Fall collection, to take a closer look at their Guatemalan-inspired knit-heavy collection. Retail-wise it’s the precollections that often become the majority of instore stock, as buyers follow through with the more daring statements from the main ready-to-wear shows. As such, the general trend is to see a greater focus on wearable, commercial pieces – a feat achieved by Proenza Schouler without losing any of their clarity of vision & the sophistication of their young signature.

Of particular note this season was the use of a spiral-cut technique throughout, featuring on slinky blouses, floor-sweeping dresses & sharp coats. Ethnic, ikat patterns are apparent in clashing sizes & colour ways through knitwear, silks & wool tailoring – in rich, optimistic hues that sit well for this transitional collection. An almost radioactive print of wolves across a jersey tee was a touch of subversive humour.

See some of our favourite pieces & silhouette’s below!

LOOKS

ACCESSORIES

UP CLOSE

A BLOG curated by Proenza Schouler is enthralled by these images from Proenza Schouler’s latest advertising campaign, shot by Belgian photographer Willy Vanderperre in London late last year. His bright, lucid shots of Julia Nobis & Melissa Tammerijn showcase the array of delicate textures and artistic hues in the Spring Summer 2011 collection, with it’s interplay of lingerie details juxtaposed with secretarial tweeds and form fitting guipure lace in acid brights.

Read our collection review here

CREDITS
Photographer: Willy Vanderperre
Stylist: Marie Chaix
Models: Melissa Tammerijn (New York Models) & Julia Nobis (Elite Model Management)
Hair: Yannick D’Ys
Makeup: Sally Branka

After the cult success of Proenza Schouler’s “Act Da Fool” video with Harmony Korine, the designers Jack McCullough & Lazaro Hernandez  have tried their hand at a second film project – this time to celebrate the latest edition of their “PS1″ handbag. Constructed in shiny patent black leather, this special re-issue has been engineered with a new process, in which a clear lacquer is painted over the skin for extra suppleness & fluidity.

The film captures model Danielle Zinaich on a bizarre journey through Annandale-on-Hudson in New York, wandering through the parkland in a customised patent leather outfit from FW10, replete with fitted rubber gloves. Her walk is captured on a grainy vintage camcorder, as she discovers the waterproof bag washed up on the edge of the rapids. The film ends as a zoom into the waterfall; and spliced with abstract cuts of the surrounding flora and the handbag floating in white noise, purports an eerie, otherworldly gravity to this otherwise chic accessory.

Watch the video here

Jack and Lazaro Hernandez are a rare breed amongst their contemporaries – fashion designers with such a clarity of personal vision that it pervades each Proenza Schouler collection with a potent acidity. Their constantly evolving narrative holds a pulsing rhythm – exploring and re-visiting their own codes while pushing forward with a subversive sophistication.

Drawing inspirations from their familiar stomping grounds (sometimes New York schoolgirls, or the Miami surf) their references never appear literally, but rather surface in details that untie the classic notions of uptown dressing that initially outline the Proenza Schouler aesthetic at first glance.

For Spring Summer 2011 the ideas of tweed tailoring, lingerie and the A-line shift dress were keynotes for a wardrobe that emphasized chic, lady-like cuts rendered in exotic hues, dyes and unexpected textures. New Australian face Julia Nobis opened the show in ivory tweed to Michel Gaubert’s soundtrack of light strings, accompanied by lilting vocal scales that lent an off-kilter classical mood to the harshly lit West 20th street space. Delicate twisted cut-outs ran down the spine of shibori silk blouses, and an uneven hem fell long in the back of sheer slip dresses – the weight of hanging hook & eye closures creating an unusual tension.

The colour palette shifted from pale lilac, apricot and stone through watermelon, orange and lime sequin embroidery to enter a hypercolour slew of guipure lace dresses that came in electric pink, orange and yellow. Triangle bras by Jean Yu peeped out beneath many looks – exposed by bib-cut necklines and the sheer, ruffle-seamed negligées that the boys proposed for hot summer nights.

To see the full collection, click here.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U717cXtrKtI[/youtube]

Credits:

Styling: Marie Chaix
Hair: Paul Hanlon
Makeup: Diane Kendal
Music: Michel Gaubert & Steven Brinke for N.O.I.S.E.
Lighting design: Thierry Dreyfus

After previewing the stills from their new collaborative film in August, Proenza Schouler have released ‘Act Da Fool’ by Harmony Korine on their official YouTube account. The final product is an intimate portrait of an unruly gang of adolescent girls in a Nashville town, rebellious against their immediate reality yet warm with the hope of wider possibilities.

Seeming somewhat caged and awkward in the cropped proportions of Proenza Schouler’s Fall Winter 2010 collection, the girls run rampant on the town in a binge of graffiti, booze and cigarettes. In a 180º shift from the catwalk where models are transformed by a designer, these characters take little or no influence from the clothes. Instead they carry on their daily lives, with the casual voice-over sprouting snippets of her own sentiments on friendship, ambition, love and their town.

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Watch below:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUsB3S0CfKE[/youtube]

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Credits:
Director: Harmony Korine
Stylist: Mel Ottenberg
Producer: Scott Pierce
Music: Brian Kotzur
Editor: Adam Robinson

Props: Garland Gallaspy
Stylist assistant: Lauren Edelstein
Production assistant: Lauren Taylor

Models: Michelrica Hughes, Elizabeth Smith, Kiara Smith, Miileah Morrison, Rashaani Wilson

Special thanks: Rachel Korine, Charles-Marie Anthonios, Jack McCullough, Lazaro Hernandez, Shea Steele, Jeff Rudes, Aaron Rose, Shirley Cook, Mary Pierson, Alejandro Cardenas, Marisa Pucci, Stephanie Dane, Ruth Inouye, Lauren Edelstein, Bryan Boone, Jen Brill, Justinian Kfoury.

The collegiate concerns of Proenza Schouler’s Fall Winter 2010 collection have been granted a new perspective by cult US film maker Harmony Korine, who shot the range in a short film in Nashville, Tennessee.

In collaboration with the Proenza Schouler designers Jack McCullough and Lazaro Hernandez, Korine took the collection from its polished New York runway to a more rough and ready strip – shooting Act Da Fool, a series of 8mm vignettes featuring rebellious teen girls in their local neighbourhood. Taking inspiration from a single photograph by Christopher Wool, the film is a look at urban youth and their search for friendship and fulfillment, through the heady confusion of adolescence and its many pressures.

Harmony Korine on Act Da Fool:

“It’s about girls who sleep in abandoned cars and set things on fire. It’s about the great things in life. The stars in the sky and lots of malt liquor.”

Jack McCullough on the film:

“He [Harmony] was perfect. We gave him all these influences and he came back with this Nashville film. We were like, “Awesome!” We were thinking more of New York kids, school kids. It opened our eyes to a new angle of the collection that we’d not really thought about.”

Exclusive stills from the film (released in September) via Nowness.com

Today A BLOG presents an exclusive, candid interview between Proenza Schouler‘s covergirl Chloë Sevigny and our friend and collaborator Kristopher Arden Houser. She shares her thoughts on Proenza Schouler’s Fall Winter 2010 collection, their issue of A, and discovering the proud American within.

On A#9:

Kristopher Arden Houser: Had you worked with Richard Burbridge before, and what was it like on set shooting the cover of A’s #9 ?

Chloë Sevigny: I had shot with Richard early in my career for a UK magazine, so it was comfortable, until I realized how many cute photo assistants were on set. They were playing really great music and I realized we were all at Sway  (a club in N.Y. popular for  playing a nearly all Smith’s soundtrack) the  Sunday before.

KH: for A#9′s launch you traveled to Florence, Italy with the Proenza Schouler boys & their team of NY collaborators – what was the most memorable moment from Pitti?

CS: I remember feeling really American, or even proud to be an American. I went with them to Florence with our New York posse like Kembra (Pfahler), Spencer (Product) and Jack / Lazaro and I was proud of them as American, New York, designers.

KH: If you could have recommended one more artist for inclusion / collaboration within their issue, who would you have suggested?

CS: In a way I could see Doug Aitken fitting into the issue nicely. Maybe its his California, music, surfer, artist sensibility. I actually did my first project with him in California, they sent me for a music video that he was shooting, I was in High School, and I thought it so glamourous – I was staying at the Roosevelt Hotel (pre-renovation) and I saw Vanna White in the parking lot.

On the Proenza Schouler Fall Winter 2010 collection:

KH: In one sentence what was the feel of the Proenza Schouler Fall Winter 2010 collection, for you?

CS: This collection felt like a re-interpretation of classics, I like their use of preppy staples like pleats, micro-mini’s and school girl dresses.

KH: You do like those micro-mini’s don’t you {we both laugh in agreement}

KH: What piece are you most excited to wear?

KH: Of the collection, or in general, when wearing leather what is your color preference?

CS:  A hard biker-black…

KH: hence the slick back hair as of late?

CS: Yes (laughing) perhaps

KH: What was the biggest risk Proenza Schouler took in this collection that you admire?

CS: The shoes. They had this Peter Fox feel to them with a Deee-Lite heel. They are (P.S.) a few seasons ahead of everyone else, and of course I think they are one of the best American designers, people will catch-on in a year or so.

Above image: “In bed, Florence”. Chloë Sevigny with Lazaro Hernandez (left) and Jack McCollough (right) of Proenza Schouler, taken during Pitti Immagine, June 2009.