Published
Jun 10, 2017
Reading time
2 minutes
Download
Download the article
Print
Text size

Vaquera stages its Hulu-sponsored Handmaid's Tale collection in New York City

Published
Jun 10, 2017

The emerging New York City-based label didn’t shy away from symbolic imagery in its interpretation of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. The collection was sponsored by Hulu, but the design was perfectly in keeping with Vaquera’s edgy, sometimes tongue-in-cheek aesthetic.


Instagram - Vaquera


In April it was announced the young design collective, which is made up of designers Patric DiCaprio, David Moses, Bryn Taubensee, and Claire Sully, would be crafting a collection based on the Hulu adaptation of Atwood’s famed dystopian novel. On Thursday, Vaquera presented the collection at the Angel Orensanz Foundation in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, which turned out to be far more than just a collection of red capes and white hats.
 
Vaquera’s chief inspiration was of course the deep red cloaks and architectural white hats worn by handmaids on the TV show, but the designers took inspiration as well from suffragettes, Japanese draping. Looks stuck to the red and white palette, but in wildly different silhouettes; one mode wore a flimsy white nightgown covered in red bras, another in an exuberant if constrictive creation of ruffles, while others wore simple pants and t-shirts. And of course there was the almost literal recreation of a 1900s suffragette, wearing an apron emblazoned with "Votes for Women"

Symbolism was also key, if sometimes on the nose. Vaquera sent a model down the runway with a stack of books on her head to symbolize the fact that handmaid’s in Gilead, the fictional fundamentalist republic in which the story is set, are not allowed to read.


Instagram - Vaquera

 
The choice of models was boundary pushing as well. Cast by Walter Pearce, the show included a mix of male and female models alongside an activist, his own mother and The Handmaid’s Tale’s actual costume designer, Ane Crabtree.
 
The Hulu adaptation of Atwood’s 1985 novel has earned mostly rave reviews, particularly for its lead actress Elisabeth Moss. The series’ tenth and final episode will air on June 14, though there are already rumors of a second season.  The bold costumes will surely be one of the most enduring aspects of the show; it would be surprising if Vaquera were the only label to draw inspiration from it, but it certainly will remain one of the boldest. 
 

Copyright © 2024 FashionNetwork.com All rights reserved.