Getting a handle on any collection is difficult via Zoom, but it’d be nearly impossible to appreciate Emily Bode’s through a screen. It isn’t just that you need to feel her antique textiles and hand-embroideries IRL; Bode is passionate about creating immersive experiences and tableaux vivant around her clothes, from her Fashion Week presentations to her sumptuously low-key shop on Hester Street. (All are designed in collaboration with her partner, Aaron Aujla of Green River Project, LLC.)
Fall 2021 marks the first collection Bode has shown since lockdown, though it’s technically spring (arriving in stores this month) and fall rolled together. For the occasion, she invited editors into what appeared to be a teenage boy’s 1960s bedroom, preserved in all its clutter (though the sirens and honking reminded us where we really were: present day Soho at rush hour). Newspapers and LIFE magazines were scattered on the tables; a vintage Monopoly set was splayed on the floor; desks were pinned with comic strips and old photos; and, of course, there were clothes everywhere: spilling out of a hamper, piled on the floor, dangling from coat hooks, draped over the bed.
Each item was painstakingly arranged by Bode and her team, but it was a convincing replica of her uncle Bill’s college dorm room at the University of Vermont (or at least Bode’s impression of it, based on his recollection). In 1969, he tricked his parents into thinking he was back at school when in fact he was taking a year off to explore the East Coast, race cars, and play games. Bode explained it was also the last year before Bill’s wife, Mahri, came into the picture; they met in 1970, married, and were together up until 2019, when Mahri passed away. Suddenly, 2020 was Bill’s first “year off” from the life he knew, and he found himself reminiscing about 1969 again.
Bode related his story of love, loss, and reflection to our own “year off” during the pandemic. Walking through the space felt poignant, but the clothes were like little bits of hope you could pick up and consider for your post-lockdown life. Sifting through the piles, you found all the familiar Bode-isms: silk button-downs with prints lifted from vintage postcards and handkerchiefs; embroidered camp shirts that are the expert work of Indian artisans; patchworked merino suits, an evolution of her quilted jackets; and her most refined knits yet, from a space-dyed pullover to a stunning hand-crocheted cardigan. A few pieces nodded to Bill and Mahri, like a souvenir jacket with a pug embroidered on the back, while others seemed happily arbitrary: an intarsia’d camel sweater, a pair of shorts chain-stitched with line drawings and funny phrases, a sweater crocheted with 3-D grapes.
A small group of tailored pieces trimmed with rows of real pearl buttons spoke to Bode’s particular passion for preserving crafts and techniques. She bought them in bulk from a closed-down button factory in the Midwest, and pointed out how each was individually hand-carved, hand-sanded, and one-of-a-kind. They may have been thrown away or relegated to some dusty warehouse if Bode hadn’t purchased them; the same could be said of the quilts, table cloths, and scraps of fabric piling up in her Brooklyn studio.
If it’s tempting to lump Bode in with other “sustainable” or “upcycled” brands, it’s actually more of a coincidence that some of her materials—not all—were already made. Bode cares about sustaining traditions and stories, not just reducing her carbon footprint, and she understands her role as an employer. She couldn’t have scaled her business to its current size if she hadn’t found a pragmatic, sustainable way to mass-produce certain garments with new materials, like her camp shirts and chore jackets, nor would she have been able to hire her teams of craftspeople in India, Peru, and New York. (Many designers canceled their orders in Garment District factories during the pandemic, but Bode made it a point to support them.)
Bode’s brand-new tailoring shop, located next to her flagship in the formerly-turquoise Classic Coffee Shop, is a more apt reflection of her sustainability ethos. Her tailors will alter your brand-new Bode suit or mend an old quilted jacket. Even if you just picked up your first Bode shirt next door, there’s a comfort in knowing you don’t have to be precious about wearing it; when the time comes, someone will be there to fix it up. On the long list of things that separate Bode from her peers (and her many imitators) is that she absolutely intends for her clothes to be worn—and would rather fix the hole in your shirt than sell you a new one. As we near the end of lockdown and consider what (and how much) to cram in our wardrobes, she gets props for elevating the conversation around re-wearing and mending, particularly for her millennial customers raised on fast fashion.
