Proenza Schouler F/W 2022.23 New York

[Cocteau Stone]

I see something that is a bit more Marni circa-2013 than Philo for Céline (I guess the colours do that for me).

They must have gotten their hands on some Halston - or obsessed over it - because there are way too many 'flying saucer' style cuts for my liking. There isn't much deviation from how it's done so it feels... annoyingly repetitive, so the novelty wears off quickly. Looking at you, skirt silhouettes.

 

[Sai]

Looks like a mix of Celine, Tory Burch and Loewe. And so heavy.

 

[RaisinBoy]

Definitely channeling Phoebe Philo era Céline. But to be fair, they have been filling the needs of oldCéline customers as their RTW sells very very well.

Really??? I heard they send out a crazy amount of free clothes to NY socialites as their last attempt... is that working?!?

 

[Frederic01]

The problem with Proenza Schouler, apart from being extremely derivative of Phoebe Philo's work, is authenticity. Ten years ago, their brand was something completely different to what it is now. Right now their brand is a carbon copy of Céline, even down to the branding, the marketing approach, and the casting (Selena and Binx in the Resort/Pre-Fall look-books). It feels very phoney and inauthentic. You can see clearly on the timeline of the brand where they jumped on the "Old Celine" bandwagon. In the process of that transition they also managed to erase the whole Proenza identity to the point where now there is no identity whatsoever.

Daniel Lee's Bottega Veneta was the best and most natural evolution of the "Céline aesthetic" because he took the heritage of BV and used the modernity of Philo's aesthetic to make something of his own. Jil Sander under Luke and Lucie use a similar approach and it works well too IMO.

Proenza Schouler on the other hand has a very weak foundation/identity and basically no heritage to speak of, and so when they decide to get inspired by Philo's work, it just ends up looking very unoriginal. They need to work on establishing some identifiable and strong codes instead of trying so hard to disguise how much Céline was on their moodboard for the season.

 

[RaisinBoy]

Diet Prada finally called out the "Proenza Philo"

 

[YohjiAddict]

It speaks volumes about the state of New York fashion that, although this collection’s inspirations are blatantly obvious, it easily makes my New York top 5 list…by any measure, it looks well-made where other brands look Fashion Nova at best.