“Look, there aren’t really talking points,” Chris Peters said of his and Shane Gabier’s Pre-Fall collection for Creatures of the Wind. “It’s more about what we love, what we think looks really cool and glamorous.” That could be a potentially out-there proposition from a pair whose work has the tendency to err on the psychedelic side, but it resulted instead in a range of easy wardrobe additions that skewed just a little bit mod. Two-way-zip laminated bouclé jackets in shapes straight from the swinging ’60s or boxy ’50s felt more Rebel Without a Cause, less Bye Bye Birdie. A great-looking sleek black sheath dress with printed lining that promises to be catnip on the racks drew a resigned sigh from Gabier: “We’re trying to build more of these foundation pieces into the collection, even if it’s not something people necessarily look to us for.” While not the pair’s most technically advanced or intrinsically exciting, the collection looked primed to hang in stores for the required five-month haul.
Crisp denim skirts and dungarees in white and black were inspired by what Gabier called “reality,” (denim being “so essential to how our friends dress,”) and hung next to a covetable, colorful printed silk shift inspired by antique Parisian wallpaper. Bustier dresses and tops in that same laminated bouclé felt ready for anything but were most often paired with lightweight layers in a neat styling double play, to prove the seasonal flexibility of both. Sandals with block heels painted to look like horn will be a bonafide hit. Gabier and Peters moved the production of their knits from Italy to Los Angeles, and showed off the mill’s homegrown prowess with retro mock-necks, prim twinsets, and lean ribbed tops. It wasn’t uptight: The feeling was of clothes that have “been lived in and had fun in,” said Peters, citing all-night CBGB No Wave dance parties in the 1970s (where the uniform was frothy 1950s dresses worn to shreds). “I love camel,” added Gabier, demonstrating how the hidden magnetized snaps of a classically elegant camel coat turned notably graphic when worn open, “because it’s such a classic, but you can actually really take it to weird places.” Now we’re talking.
