NYFW: Telfar and Subculture

Yellow cabs, flashing lights and the smell of a piping hot espresso are just some of the smells I would smell in New York City, but I am sitting comfortable streaming all the shows live or waiting for them to be unloaded onto YouTube for my viewing all while in my dorm room. Watching fashion week on my laptop has become a ritual for myself and for many others, but with that I am able to see it all from the street style and after parties on my favorite models Instagram story. This past fashion week in New York was one of bold movements and different scenery. Specifically, Telfar, with its inception in 2006. Telfar Clements the creator and designer or Telfar has come a long way and this collection shows it.

With its references to “American” heritage and country culture with its use of leather and denim, Telfar really reimagines the cowboy in the 21stcentury, and this cowboy isn’t afraid of his body or his skin color. The setting of the show was one of drama and angst, in a mosh pit of spectators, models where lifted from the stage and gently placed into the sea of bodies and fashion spectators. Beer dripped on the ground and you could feel the energy in the room and the stickiness on the ground all from watching on my laptop looking out the window in my dorm. With a message that black designers don’t just have to create street wear, but they can create something that is anti-black, but this wasn’t a visual of a group of black people going against the grain of the stereotypical black person, but bringing a sub culture in the black community to light.