Andrew Gn is not just a successful fashion designer—he is also a collector of rare porcelain, antique kimonos, and obi and vintage Kansai Yamamoto sweaters from the 1980s. His curator’s eye is doubtless one of the reasons Gn will serve as the honorary chair at the San Francisco Winter Antiques Show next month. As such, he follows in the footsteps of fashion legends Bill Blass and Oscar de la Renta.
Gn, too, is a favorite among socialites but, as he remarked backstage before the show, he doesn’t really consider fashion an uptown/downtown proposition anymore. Of late, he has been incorporating more street influences.
An homage to Tokyo and Kyoto, his Spring collection featured message shirts and dresses calligraphed To-kyo-to or Harajuku, after a buzzy, avant-garde high street in the Japanese capital. Gn recalls discovering the scene in the ’80s: “They’d take their grandmother’s kimonos and wear them with leather trousers, it was sweet, tough, and really fascinating.” Even so, Gn being Gn, he elevated the idea by rendering brushstrokes in black beadwork, pairing it with a bold-hued trench with graphic black trim. Elsewhere, he fringed a black leather mini with grosgrain ribbons and silver buckles.
Color and embellishments are Gn’s comfort zone for good reason: As the designer succinctly puts it, “It’s an art thing.” This season, he brought that signature to a swingy tennis dress with floral embroidery to charming effect. Kabuki prints appeared on an oversize shirtdress or a one-sleeved minidress with grosgrain trim. Maple leaf appliqués tumbled over shift dresses and techno-flowers cascaded over a sleeveless maxi-vest in linen.
Obviously, Gn consistently looks to his own collections for inspiration. Among his personal treasures are kimonos that once belonged to his Japanese grandmother, and he duly extrapolated some classic motifs like fans and landscape scenes as embroidery or prints on long, tiered dresses and ball gowns. Gn’s fans are going to be spoiled for choice.
In one aspect, however, they won’t: The finale, a short pale pink cape covered entirely with handmade silk flowers, was more of a couture piece. Gn has already decided to make it for no more than one woman in each city. Let the jockeying begin.
