Penshoppe goes goth?
One of my more enduring images of Penshoppe is of those brightly colored, Starck-designed cartoonish mannequins they had many years ago, which, because of their odd big heads, stood out more than the clothes did. The brand has since gone through several campaign overhauls in line with the ever-changing youth, yet without ever really diluting the essence of Penshoppe, which is about vibrant casual clothing for non-fussy fashionistas. At this season’s Fashion Week, Penshoppe chose to forgo the usual runway show and instead gave a sit-down dinner to celebrate its latest incarnation, which is a “revisioning” of fashion.
No, they’re not out to reinvent fashion — you’ll still see the usual button-down shirts, jeans and tees — but, as brand director Alex Mendoza says, “The brand offers a new outlook, from the way we wear fashion, the way we see each piece of clothing. No longer will the clothes dictate one’s style. We are putting you in charge, the clothes will merely work for you.” Which means that even if your look is totally off-the-wall and you scour eBay for period clothing and only wear the color gray, you can still integrate Penshoppe into your wardrobe. Because it’s not about Penshoppe’s own style — which is pretty functional and safe — but how you work these basics and layering pieces into your own personal style.
The fashion show presented four trends for 2010: ethnic, country, gothic and futuristic. The challenge was to use Penshoppe’s key styles of plaid, checks and ginghams for these wildly differing looks. The ethnic group came out like majestic rajahs and tribal chieftains, with feathery headdresses, turbans, and African-printed capes. The country folk looked like they stepped out of Field and Stream, or were dapper, trigger-happy members of the NRA. The futuristic crowd reminded me of Blade Runner and New York city bike messengers with their aerodynamic courier-couture. The final “revision,” the Gothics, was a funereal procession of Victorian melodrama. Those would be good looks for Halloween, methinks.
The styling was overtly costume-y and seemed to have taken the meaning of the trends too literally so that the actual Penshoppe pieces were oftentimes drowned in all the foofaraw and it was hard to tell where Penshoppe ends and Camp Suki begins. But perhaps that was the point — they’re meant to be absorbed. You don’t have to end up looking like a freshly-scrubbed Club Pen model dressed in their boyfriend-fit cardigans, drapey tunics, vests, etc. With a few creative styling twists, you can head to Comic Con, a charity ball, or a Fluxxe night in Penshoppe and nobody would know. Until they ask, of course.
