“We’re not talking about Y2K anymore. We’ve got to scrap it, I’m sick of it,” declared the American-born designer Conner Ives backstage at his show at The Savoy hotel.
This was a restart season in a way for the designer and it reflected his coming of age into sustaining a profitable business.
The Conner Ives customer can now buy all the pieces they see on the runway in stores and online without any differentiation between them. In the past, he used vintage T-shirts to recreate those on the runway.
“It’s a reevaluation of the business — if you’re not able to sell products that women see on the runway, then what are we doing here? It took me a while to come around to that idea,” said the designer candidly.
“I want to see sustainable fashion work, but it’s the Wild West right now, we have to try things out,” he added.
This was Ives’ most streamlined collection to date, touching on the pageantry of American debutante balls and Truman Capote’s Swans, who seem to be inspiring designers across both sides of the pond.
He designed simple yet beautiful black dresses with carabiner hooks or zigzag lace teasing skin to get away from being typecast as the T-shirt or Y2K designer.
Ives’ flirty touch was still all over the pieces though: a snakeskin jumpsuit with a short golden sarong attached; an enlarged shearling shoulder scarf worn around the arms with a frayed denim skirt, and a sheer white bridal dress for the finale featuring embroidered wired headphones from the neighboring factories of his manufacturer in Mumbai.
“Sometimes America gets put into certain categories, which are oftentimes deserving, I’m not defending the country in any way. But it’s nice to see an elegance in America for a country that’s always the butt of a joke,” said the designer.
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