Who Decides War presented its fourth collection at sunset on the Intrepid, the decommissioned WWII aircraft carrier-turned-museum. The combination of ‘war” in the brand name and the location might have suggested a show of aggression, but Everard Best (aka Ev Bravado) and Téla D’Amore’s lineup was more of a peace offering—or a march, as Best suggested, of “God’s Army.”
Yes, there were military references. The first exit featured a missile bag, but when that arched shape returned later it resembled a stained-glass window. Best explained that he was “raised in church and a tailor shop” (his parents are in the ministry). D’Amore’s grandfather, meanwhile, was a First Lieutenant in WWII. He described the collection as “the culmination of everything that we have experienced and the things that really mean the most to us.”
Having sat out fall 2021 to allow for some soul-searching regarding the direction of the brand, this spring collection is a sort of restart. Best said they approached it saying: “Let’s just be us, and let’s do what feels right and true to us, and has always served us, and that’s denim and embroidery.”
“And New York!” D’Amore added.
“One of my biggest inspirations,” said Best, “is Ralph Lauren. Going into this collection [we asked ourselves], how do we make this like our Polo, but for 2021?” When people ask the pair to describe the brand, he continued, “We say it is redefined Americana through our lens as people of color.”
The show included references to the Tuskegee Airmen and to Black Civil Rights leaders, whose portraits were stitched within embroidered stained-glass window panels made in collaboration with the artist Steven Barter of Barriers. Heritage informs everything that WDW does, starting with the team’s design philosophy. “Resourcefulness in general is everything that our cultures stand on,” said D’Amore. “I think, in general, that’s the larger commentary, because when we were creating in our past couple seasons, it was like we had to be resourceful because we had no other choice.” They called out Virgil Abloh and Kerby Jean-Raymond (who attended the show) for their active and essential support.
At WDW much resourcefulness and attention is focused on materials, as is evident in the brand’s look on display at The Met. Thrifting and deadstock materials are combined with pure, no-stretch cotton. Their denim is embellished with patchwork and embroideries based on original designs that are digitized and machine-sewn. All of the brand’s sample making is done by hand, as is the distressing, which Best does himself with his assistant.
Because so much “intention” and hand-work go into each piece, maybe the real question WDW is posing is who decides what art is? “It’s not streetwear, it’s not high fashion, it’s really art,” D’Amore asserted. “In the same way someone is spending days on a canvas, we’re spending days on a jacket, or days on a pair of jeans.”
