If you ever doubted that there is an element of enchantment to SC103’s universe, consider this: While shooting the lookbook in a local park, the team discovered a mushroom circle. “It’s a mother fungus that sends out fungi in a perfect circle,” explained Claire McKinney. “The mother dies and the mushrooms grow. In European folklore these were known as fairy circles… You were supposed to respect this circle [which is] a boundary between the supernatural and the ordinary. Entering that circle could mean time would warp. I feel like we talk a lot about this stretching and warping of time,” McKinney continued, “a day can feel like a minute when we’re so involved in our studio practice.”
She and Sophie Andes-Gascon work out of a brick studio from the 1860s which you get to through a long, narrow hallway that has “an Alice in Wonderland kind of quality,” said Andes-Gascon. “When I get to the studio I’m feeling a certain way and then as I walk through that dark tunnel and enter the space, it’s like I’m a miniature version or I’m a really big version—there’s a transformation that happened right inside that hole.”
When McKinney and Andes-Gascon tumbled down the rabbit hole this season it seems they landed sideways because they introduced bias-cut pieces for the first time. (Textiles are made in a grid format of vertical—warp—threads and horizontal—weft—ones. Something that is on the bias is cut diagonally at a 45 degree angle.) The dresses that fell diagonally from one shoulder (and had a strap on the other) featured radiating candy-like stripes of various fabrics and were beyond charming. In addition, the designers created bewitching colors by layering organzas of different hues over each other.
Part of the appeal of SC103 is that the designers don’t color within the lines, as it were. It’s ironic then that Andes-Gascon and McKinney have an ongoing fascination with stripes and plaids. Almost every single look in the collection made use of one. This season the Motto shift dress was made with different checks back and front, and had been given a dramatic round neckline. Mattress ticking was used for a vest, and cotton shirting fabric was used for tops and skirts that fit to a T.
