Emily Bode’s last name–eponymous label—now just over one year old—is somehow otherworldly, despite being rooted, deeply, in the most familiar setting of all: one’s own home and history. This designer’s grasp on emotion and family ties, as well as research and immersion, puts her in a league of her own—not necessarily above the other upstart American labels, but certainly removed from the crowd. And, we get the feeling, that’s exactly where she’s comfortable.
Spring—like last season’s delve into her family’s Cape Cod, Massachusetts, home—plumbed the loveliest of cerebral associations regarding the domestic space: the attic, or le grenier in French. During the collection’s development, Bode went to Peymeinade, France, near Nice, to speak with her uncle’s mother, who moved there after World War II. The woman told Bode that the attic represented her happiest memories—her own mother had resided there, as had her son. Thinking of le grenier—and its protective, internal warmth—gave the woman a sense of completeness. “It ended up being this really beautiful story of coming to terms with mortality,” said Bode.
The clothes shone through that airborne ash with almost teary romance and fine-lined intellect and, for lack of a more eloquent phrase, flying colors. There was a raincoat made of 1960s-era vinyl taken from outdoor furniture. Its flowery pattern was as nostalgic and optimistic as you’d imagine. Toweling, also from the 1960s, comprised a mustard-and-cream flowered jacket, while centuries-old linens were cut into sleep shirts. Shorts were made out of what appeared to be scalloped table linens. In the way that, say, Alessandro Michele at Gucci does curios on the catwalk with major scale, Bode, too, albeit much more quietly, imbues her oeuvre with such antiquity and texture that it is hard not to feel compelled by her approach and her narratives.
Some items in Bode are one-offs. That’s all the designer can find fabric for. Other pieces can be made in small runs, depending on how much of the textile Bode is able to find—nearly 150 fibers are used in Spring. All of the above goes to say: She is one of the most remarkable young names in the New York Fashion Week: Men’s mix, and her work is not to be missed.
