Luxury brand Bode dives into womenswear
US fashion designer Emily Bode was back in Paris for Fashion Week with a vintage collection inspired by her mother and aunts.
Bode is one of the most talked about fashion designers on the scene and has made a splash in menswear over the past few years. She’s picked up plenty of famous fans – Harry Styles, Jay Z and Emma Corrin to name a few.
Now the 33-year-old’s eponymous label is stepping into the world of womenswear for the first time.
Paris Fashion Week – Bode
She recreated a scene from rural America on stage at the Chatelet Theatre. The show started with an introduction by Bode’s uncle, who spoke of the recent death of his wife – a photographer who took many pictures of the family from which the night’s collection was drawn.
“We used details from some of my mom’s clothes taken from photos from the sixties and seventies,” Bode told reporters backstage. “We have an entire board of pictures that my aunt took of the family.”
Bode’s clothes are handcrafted and often made from recycled antique fabrics, quilts and grain sacks.
Her new vintage-inspired collection includes tuxedos with rhinestone lapels, suits embellished with sequin Champagne bottles and classically-tailored camel hair overcoats.
The collection – titled “The Crane Estate” was based on her mother’s time working for an eccentric old lady in Massachusettes – who dressed each evening in lavish gowns from the 19th century.
The new line includes silk tops and lingerie to chunky jumpers, ornate jacquards and crochet berets.
She recently told Vogue it was a natural move for the company to move into womenswear as women accounted for half her sales.
“I wanted to be able to offer something more than just putting men’s suits on women’s bodies. It was imperative that we launched new silhouettes for that purpose,” she told the magazine.
There were some funny nods to “novelty American traditions and holidays”, as Saturday’s show notes put it, with one model dressed up as a Christmas tree.
