NEW SEASON, OLD CLOTHES

“LIMITATIONS ALWAYS EXPOSE YOUR TASTE AND POINT OF VIEW.” —GABRIELA HEARST

Last spring, during the first days of sheltering at home, Proenza Schouler’s Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez realised that they were in a bind. The world’s premium fabric mills, many based in the areas of northern Italy hardest hit by the pandemic, were all closed until further notice. How could a luxury fashion label design a new collection without any new fabric? After innumerable Zoom sessions with suppliers, they decided to use bolts of deadstock fabric left over from past seasons. “We had this vast archive of fabrics from the past decade and we really tapped into that—and in a strange way, it forced us to be more creative,” recalls Hernandez. “Ninety percent of the spring 2021 collection is made from archival fabrics that have been reworked in different ways.” Meeting the challenge with an optimistic