According to the Ambush school of style, you should be wearing your detention slip as a badge of pride. Titled Hues, but really an homage to John Hughes and The Breakfast Club, the collection played out like the accessories equivalent of word play. This included graduation rings, pins resembling pop can tops, a Kelly bag/lunch box hybrid, security tag earrings, and the aforementioned detention slip brooch—all in sterling silver. And all, for the first time, shown on models, posed against a stylized locker room backdrop wearing the brand’s burgeoning clothing line. Here, in keeping with the high school theme, they embodied various archetypes—the overachiever, the prom queen, the varsity jock—in looks that were, to state the obvious, too cool for high school.
As preternaturally cool cofounder Yoon Ahn pointed out, The Breakfast Club’s coming-of-age story dovetailed with the brand’s growth. “We’re coming to the realization of what we can be,” she said, describing today—and even her LVMH Prize finalist status—as a graduation of sorts. In general, the clothes—all made in Japan—were a fairly accurate depiction of how kids customize their style and experiment with their identities; only here, all those awkward suiting alterations were deliberate, the tape on a sweatshirt was permanently fixed, and the brainiac had more edge than the princess. The outerwear, in particular, transcended youth culture: the trench that could be unsnapped at the waist, a deconstructed varsity jacket, and the windowpane topcoat with a trompe l’oeil shirt placket. But even when other pieces could have benefitted from more finesse, the attitude was undeniable. Ahn said she notices that people gravitate towards the designs that sync with their character, at which point, this reviewer realized that her favorite piece was the Band-Aid ring.
