“I was definitely in a more playful mood this season,” said Heirlome’s Stephanie Suberville of her spring collection. Evidence of this included the seasonal print commissioned from Mexican artists Bernardina Rivera Baltazar and Roselia Felipe Rivera: its confident, strong lines seem to have their own radiance. The flower and bird motifs the mother-and daughter duo blew up were are taken from Purépecha pottery and are usually applied to water pots. In Bolivia, Madres y Artesanas Tex translated this artwork into airy, dimensional knits using cashmere and silk.
In supporting Latin American makers and artisanal know-how, Suberville is equating heritage as a sort of heirloom. Simultaneously in New York she is creating garments that project forward; think of them as future heirlooms. The idea is to interweave these notions. A felicitous example of that was this season’s joyful, fluffy tassels (made of three different types of thread) which wonderfully abstracted the idea of a flower and took it in an engaging direction, adding movement and texture to the collection. A waist defining black coat was transformed from a wardrobe staple to an entrance maker with the addition of these pompoms. As Suberville noted: “I always have a clean hand, but at the same time a lot of the drama is in the volume and the shapes.”
For spring, hips were given definition airily, through the use of horsehair as a support material. Pants were less high waisted so as to fall with a bit of an easier slouch. “I always have normal outerwear in weird fabrics,” said Suberville, who used a raw silk for a barn coat with utilitarian pockets which added a (relatively) hard element to the offering. These also appeared on evening pieces. There was a topiary-like feeling to a ruff and top made of densely gathered or petalled fabric. Another way Suberville introduced surface interest was in a popcorn dress with “kernels” that got progressively larger toward the hem—a sort of textural ombré effect, if you will.
Draping, another Suberville speciality, came in two forms, classical (tightly gathered pieces had a Grecian air about them) and abstract. The latter was created by cutting flat geometric patterns with a flange that was left to fall gently, or collapse into a romantic and organic form.
Suberville, a Vogue/CFDA Fashion Fund finalist, said the process put her in the position of thinking about the brand as a whole. “I was like, ‘Okay, where were we and where are we now?’” she said, “and I went back a little bit and moved forward a little bit.” The backstepping entailed reissuing a past design (see the slip dress with lace insert) and reconnecting with past suppliers. There was the nostalgia evoked by Natalia LaFourcade’s version of the Mexican folk song “Cucurrucucú Paloma.” “I listened to [it] endlessly, and the song’s mood, nostalgia, and romance are woven throughout the collection,” the designer said. (Lyrics from that song and another Mexican standard were embroidered on T-shirts.) Paloma is the Spanish word for pigeon or dove; it’s clear Suberville is ready to spread her wings and soar.
