Public School Pre-Fall 2016

What on earth could drive two designers as devotedly New York-centric as Public School's Maxwell Osborne and Dao-Yi Chow halfway across the planet to show their Pre-Fall collection in Dubai? The Cadillac XT5, that's what. The iconic American motor company brought its new crossover to the UAE for its world premiere and took Public School - and the merry band of editors, bloggers, It-girl DJs, and photographers required for the full production - along for the ride.

Dubai continues to ride the crest of something too major to be called a boom: A constant haze lies thick over the city, most of which seems to be dust kicked up by the near-hysteric rate of construction of its shopping malls, opulent hotels, and thrusting skyscrapers. Osborne and Chow (fresh off their Spring '16 collections for Public School and DKNY) are by now not unfamiliar with a frenetic pace. To judge by the cool, languid collection, layered with the mix of athletic references and urban tailoring that consumers have come to expect from the brand, they weren't particularly phased by the great lengths taken to mount this show, either. Even the idea of presenting within a nation not particularly known for its sartorial freedoms was taken in stride: The Public School silhouette has always been a modesty-hewing long and lean one, Chow pointed out backstage, and the designers are big supporters of tunics for either gender.

"There's a shared vocabulary," Chow said. But it's not necessarily a literal one. From a mesh football jersey run through with a shiny tartan grid to the fluid knits and trim overcoats, this was not about Western fashion's historical relationship with the Middle East, but a reflection of the way global style happens now. "When you think of Dubai, for us, two New York kids, there were so many points of crossover," said Chow, pointing out how Dubai and New York City share both a hustle synonymous with an obsession with the creation of wealth, and the visions of themselves as global meeting places. "The idea for this season was nature and technology really meeting and crossing, the battle between that, in a place where you have the tallest building of the world right on the edge of endless desert," Osborne said.

Kimono-style jackets came in black and navy shibori-inspired printed silk, while long, filmy-knit frocks were layered over starched white shirting or tucked under round-shouldered mesh-inset cropped knits, for the type of thing that looks right no matter what season - or nation-state - it's in. "The Public School girl is still traveling from Spring," said Osborne. "She left her phone in New York and she's on this journey, she's off finding herself, and we'll see where she goes for Fall." Somehow we have the feeling that wherever she ends up, she'll be landing on her feet. (vogue.com)