On Monday night, fashion month unofficially got underway with a hotly anticipated debut, not in New York but in the gilded aristocratic Pozzo di Borgo mansion on the Left Bank. If it got rolling rock-star late, that was, perhaps, to be expected.
Currently swinging through town on his Big Ass World Tour, Post Malone co-opted these salons—once home to none other than Karl Lagerfeld—to unveil ‘Season One’ of Austin Post, his new namesake ready-to-wear brand. To drive the point home, the collection was cast against a sunset landscape from the Far West, amping up these chandeliered rooms
with desert hues and a heap of cowboy swagger. The finale even included a live steed, with an added assist from the throwback “A Horse With No Name,” by America.
This isn’t the multi-billion-stream star’s first rodeo with fashion: just two weeks ago, a SKIMs campaign broke showing him in the badlands of Utah wearing not much more than his famed tats and camouflage skivvies. But it’s certainly his biggest.
As rehearsals got underway, Malone—dressed in a Canadian tuxedo, aka full denim and his favorite white straw cowboy hat—admitted that if he can hold a jam-packed arena in thrall, when it came to the runway he had a case of the jitters, which he was managing as he tends to do, with smokes and beers.
“It’s anxiety and excitement,” he said, reaching for a fresh bottle. “Those are the best feelings. If you don’t have those, you don’t care.”
And fashion is something he cares about. “I’ve always flirted with it,” he continued. “I love dressing up, even if [lately] I just wear the same shit every day. I always wanted to do [a show]; I just never thought it would be possible.” As he stared down his 30th birthday, last July 4, he decided that the time was right. “I think it’s really badass to bring the Bud Light and all the shenanigans over here, and just have fun with it,” he said as he popped the cap. “I’m a lucky son of a bitch to just be where I am at this point, so one day, I just said, ‘fuck it, let’s do it.”
Having asked his team to make everything here in his size so he could take it straight to the stage, Post added that he was intentional about the casting, tapping both professional models and ranch hands from back home.
