Dear New York
At DKNY, newly appointed Creative Directors Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne’s deliver a love letter to the city they call home…
When Donna Karan announced a year ago that she was stepping down from the brand she founded in 1984, fashion mourned the end of an era. Arguably one of the most influential and certainly most important designers in American fashion - both in design and commerce - was leaving the company that bore her name. And yet, with the inevitability of fashion’s shifting tides, few were surprised.
It was indeed an end of an era but it was also time for a new fresh perspective, and with it a new generation of designers designing for a new generation of women.
Last year, New York wunderkinds Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne - also known as the boys behind Public School and winners of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund award in 2013 - were ceremoniously handed over the torch and tasked with relighting the DKNY fire for women of today.
The weight of the DKNY legacy is understandably a heavy one, but for Chow and Osborne, New York natives who grew up at the peak of DKNY-mania in the ‘90s, it seems almost predestined as the new roles allow them to re-discover the city through entirely new lens.
“We’ve been inspired by this sort of lawlessness in New York City – the idea that if you have the drive and determination and the thought, then the infrastructure of the city will allow you to really do anything you want, go anywhere you want,” says Osborne. “There are no boundaries here in New York.”
It is exactly this bold ambition that has not only defined the duo’s career thus far, but also speaks directly to the women they are designing for today: “Little by little, we are getting to know more and more about the DKNY woman. We are peeling back the layers and seeing her clearer day by day. She’s a multidimensional modern woman - never stops moving, and is someone who really wants to be taken seriously, but still is not taking herself too seriously,” says Chow.
“New York has been able to provide the most diverse background for us to witness real people and real lifestyles. The gap between hi and lo-fi is really close.”
New York’s Finest
Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne’s edit of the city’s best bits
- For Chilling
- Spring Place and Tiny’s in Tribeca are good restaurants with good energy
- For the Best Meal
- Because New York City is always on the go, sometimes the best meal is a quick meal. Los Tacos in Chelsea and Joe’s Pizza never fail.
- For Inspiration
- The museums and the streets of NYC of course are perfect for people watching.
- Best-kept Secret
- The parks of New York City are really something special, and best of all; it’s right in front of you.
The pair take a less literal approach when seeking inspiration from New York, instead building on its undeniable energy, creating a wardrobe that takes the modern woman from day to night. “It’s also the idea of deconstruction - mixing styles that don’t necessarily belong together, taking references from New York City and finding a way to make those things work,” adds Chow.
“Yeah, we’ll often pull inspiration from an image, piece of music, or work of art that gets us thinking. We then challenge it through the lens of how we grew up in the city,” echoes Osborne, “which allows us to mix and match things, pull them apart and re-appropriate them.”
Taking cues from Donna’s most iconic moments, particularly in “how she revolutionised the way women dress, specifically for work”, the design duo looked at key shapes such as the strong shoulder and iconic textiles like suiting pinstripe, and “turned them on their head.”
“Our goal was to deconstruct and reconstruct our version of what the brand stood for. We’ve tried to elevate the collection, both in execution and in thought,” says Chow when asked about their vision for the label.
“Authenticity is so important to us. We want to make a brand that people can relate to; something real and practical but aspirational at the same time.”
The Autumn Winter 2016 offering is their second with the label but continues to celebrate everything New York has come to be known for. Heavily influenced by streetwear, the collection is inspired by ‘90s girl bands – less En Vogue, more TLC - with deconstructed shirt-dressing, baggy pinstriped pants and perhaps the biggest throwback to the ‘90s, oversized sweatshirts that played on the DKNY logo acronym, “Dazed Kids New York” and “Don’t Knock New York”.
And while Chow and Osborne may feel like “Designers Know Nothing Yet”, we can attest that they are well on their way.