There’s something to be said about designer Telfar Clemens and the rain - namely, how happy fashion folks are to battle the element to see his work. This season, the Liberian-American designer is moving his reliably thought-provoking runway show to Paris Fashion Week but offered his loyal New York fan-base an inside look at the main event with a screening of the collection’s accompanying film, The World Isn’t Everything.

Like his show last September, throngs of influential youth (many carrying the latest Telfar leather shopper bag) shuffled out in the early autumn downpour - this time to an industrial cavern in Bushwick instead of a helicopter pad at the edge of the East River - for a chance to find out what the 2017 CFDA Fashion Fund winner had to say.

If the film covered the full range of non-gendered looks set to debut in Paris, there is a lot to look forward to. Actor Ashton Sanders (of Moonlight fame) narrates and appears in the film, reading prose - a stud from the brand’s new jewellery line in his ear and a 1970s inspired dusty pink suit jacket around his shoulders.

Taking on the theme of migration, the film has been directed by Clayton Vomero, Akinola Davies Jr and Petra Collins and also features contributions from Clemens’ co-conspirators Ian Isiah, Oyinda, Butch Dawson, Kelsey Lu, Jeremy O’Harris, Leo Fitzpatrick, Don Hearn and Juliana Huxtable, many of whom attended the event. In the work, this cast wore ballooned sleeves, zip-up polos, jeans with leather details, bell-bottoms and leisurely looks with cut-outs in shades of brown, grey and muted green. The 1980s sportswear and military uniform influences were overt.

With floating plastic barges, TSA checks, and interrogation rooms, a ballroom inspired soundtrack and the scent of White Castle burgers and Budweiser in the air, to say that this season has revisited marginalised Americana is no stretch.

Words Amber Nicole Alston
Photography David Gannon, Myles Loftin, Carter Tanon, Marley Marc

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Published on 09/09/2019