Wiederhoeft Wants Everyone to Be a Part of Its Fantasy
For Fall 2023, the brand introduces more "casual" pieces into its theatrical, narrative-fueled world of infinite possibility.
There's multiple ways to take in a Wiederhoeft collection. You could just consume it at face value, admiring the breathtaking craftsmanship, the mesmerizing beading, the exquisite fit that intimates Jackson Wiederhoeft's Thom Browne training, the corsetry that's become a brand signature. Or you could dive head-first into the designer's world, the many threads of inspiration being pulled, the intellectual frameworks being explored over the course of the season, through a mix of bridal, ready-to-wear and demi-couture.
The show notes for Fall 2023 — Wiederhoeft's ninth collection, titled "Eurydice" — could be read as a syllabus, with its references to Orpheus, ancient Greek mythology, Catholicism, Virgil's "Aeneid," Rainer Maria Rilke's "Orpheus," "Eurydice," "Hermes," A.E. Stalling's "Eurydice's Footnote" and Julian of Norwich.
"By the end, it becomes quite a bookshelf," the designer said backstage, referring to the many influences that accumulate over the course of putting together each collection.
The starting point for Wiederhoeft was Rilke's poem: "It's such a classic tale, and everyone's addressed it a million times plus, so I thought, 'Why not take my twist on it?'" The designer had also "been thinking about post-gender thought a lot," especially after reading "A Cyborg Manifesto" by Donna J. Haraway, and was weighing questions like, "do we need those mythologies, or are we making new ones?" The results of this exercise are 20-some looks that reinterpret classic tales "in a post-gender, abstract way, taking the imagery and totally decontextualizing it."
As for how that translates into clothing, there's a considered effort to ground the fantasy a bit. The brand incorporated more familiar, arguably "casual" pieces — done the Wiederhoeft way, of course — like denim (with corsetry lacing), sheer slips (with all-over embroidery in the outline of faux tattoos, which took "eight days straight" of hand-sketching), a black overcoat (covered in silver sequins to create the visual effect of broken glass).
"I want anyone to be able to enter the story, but I also want to create spaces that haven't existed before," Wiederhoeft said. "Like, to be able to see a non-binary person, wearing a wedding dress, closing the show — it's not even something that should be shocking anymore. I don't think it really is. To me, post-gender thought is this idea that, yes, we're inherently prescribed to the context that we grew up with our whole life, but I think it's exciting to think about a space where it doesn't matter. A lot of it has to do with this utopia that we're all aiming for: What does fashion design look like in a space where anything is possible?"
One thing that isn't going anywhere, though? The Wiederhoeft corset.
"I love corsets, so that works for me," the designer said. "Injecting that into a lot of the ready-to-wear is really important... To me, corsetry is architecture. That's what's so special about fashion: It's architecture, but also, the warmth of your body will also change the way it's shaped. It's a really interesting bridge of science and art. 'Always be corseting' is what I tell everyone."
See the Wiederhoeft Fall 2023 collection below.
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