Fashion Deets: Public School Pre-Fall 2016

The power, funds, and prestige it takes to put on a fashion show outside of the industry’s sartorial capitals is no longer reserved for the likes of Louis Vuitton and Chanel, as eight-year-old brand Public School just showed their latest collection in Dubai. New York-based designers Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne have been increasingly garnering buzz over the last couple of years, as the new Creative Directors for DKNY, as well as gaining the sponsorship of American auto giant Cadillac. The brand took Public School to Dubai for their first-ever Pre-Fall 2016 runway show.

For the actual designs, Chow and Osborne stuck to their quintessential downtown cool and laid-back pieces: which surprisingly works well for the modest dress code in Dubai. Clean slip-on sneakers, mesh striped panels, half-zip roomy jackets, and printed bombers injected the brand’s signature athletic-inspired vibe, as did the models’ slicked-back and sleek hair.

Public School’s New York City sensibility came through in the collection’s somber color palette: Pre-Fall represents the transition between Summer and Fall and can still be punctuated with a bright hue or print after all. Hemlines were reserved and long for both women and men including knee-grazing shorts, lengthy anoraks, spacious trousers, and airy tunics—another element the Dubai set will be sure to enjoy.

What Chow and Osborne made sure not to do was give their take on Middle Eastern fashion. What they did instead was celebrate and demonstrate the way different trends and aesthetics are shaped globally. They pulled inspiration from Dubai’s duality: cloud-grazing skyscrapers and a seemingly boundless desert all rolled into one.

They sought to create the kind of assortment that could work year-round, no matter the wearer’s locale. Cozy knit frocks for Fall’s chilly temperatures, kimono-inspired jackets for those cool days in Spring, transparent tops for a bit of warm weather layering: the Public School customers are traveling (perhaps to Dubai or just crosstown in the Big Apple) and now they have a few more effortless and relaxed pieces to offset their fast-paced lifestyles.

Thoughts on the latest from Public School?
Images: Getty