Stuck in your home, trying on clothes, with nowhere to go? Rachel Antonoff can relate. For her fall 2022 collection she delves into a Miss Havisham-esque journey of characters played brilliantly by Cole Escola. Character studies are par for the course at an Antonoff outing—she’s staged plays, musicals, concerts in the past—but few pull off the nuance of a beautifully demented Antonoff muse quite like Escola, whose brand of eerie comedy amplifies the surreal nature of the designer’s jewel-print and cookie-print pieces.
The soul of it all comes through immediately; that’s Antonoff’s strength. But over the course of the pandemic her collections have risen from twee separates into real clothes for cheeky customers. (See her seafood tower dress, a veritable hit of summer 2022.) While the comedy of her toile of nude fleeing men remains, this season she’s expanded her mixed-stitch knits, easy tailoring, and beloved jumpsuits in rich colors, creating a strong baseline above which the RA muse can layer in their own attitude: kooky, happy, free.
