In September of 2019 Rejina Pyo held her spring 2020 collection in a London library, sending out crafty, summery separates full of promise and expression. “I’m not a fantasy fashion designer. I’m fascinated by people’s lives. And I want my clothes to live in their lives, and their wardrobes,” she told my colleague Luke Leitch at the time. Nearly two years later, Pyo is back at the same venue for fall 2021, only she’s landed in the building’s basement, setting up a secret, semi-illicit party for her lookbook shoot.
Her inspiration for the collection was Billy Monk’s 1960s photographs of South African partiers, awkwardly captured mid cheers or dance move. It’s not The Great Gatsby or the Studio 54 mood so many are predicting post-pandemic. In that it feels more honest. Pyo still wants to create a wardrobe for people’s lives, no matter how strange they might be right now.
She’s given up head-to-toe stylings in favor of an eclectic mix of sunbleached hoodies, patent midi-skirts, and printed silk lounge sets in the off palette of acid tangerine and clay.
In general, Pyo’s colors skew to the weird this season: in-your-face turquoise paired with pure grass green and muted lemon, the strangeness amplified by the eclectic styling. Pyo described rummaging through vintage bins or mixing the wardrobes of an old man and a young girl—a bit haphazard and intentionally bizarre. On the backs of street-cast models, meeting each other for the first time on this shoot, the off-ness feels right. Pyo has her moments of serenity too, with chunky sage green suiting cinched with a simple string. No one knows what the future holds; Pyo is wise to embrace the uncertainty of our moment.
