Fall marks the third season in which president Johnathan Crocker and women’s design director Shayla Guy have evolved Bldwn (formerly known as Baldwin) beyond premium denim and into lifestyle. Their first collection of the rebrand, set for spring, has yet to hit stores, meaning customer feedback hasn’t been a factor in the design process just yet. To the fashion press, the rebirth has been seen as an elevation of the brand’s core, with a new overall confident attitude and clean silhouettes linked back to American subcultures.
“The whole idea is the late Sixties, early Seventies way of high-low, which seems like the first time it ever happened,” Guy said of the fall collection. “Artists and poets [were] creating this bohemian glamour that was also aristocratic.” It translated to romantic items like a soft blazer shirt balanced against the toughness of leather pants, and alluring items that completely covered the body as in a tonal orange sweater and trousers set and a simple T-shirt and jeans under a mannish color-blocked coat.
A key takeaway was accessibility undercut with modernity. A sweater with contrast color sleeves had an artful quality that harkened back to Edie Sedgwick’s style, while the coolness of a half-open shirtdress over jeans was in the vein of Bianca Jagger. Guy mined the fashion sensibilities of other female icons, but the silhouettes were as much about an injection of attitude and personality than direct reference points. Strong denim, chunky knitwear and reworked shirting rounded out the covetable range.
Bldwn RTW Fall 2019
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