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.