Courtesy of Kenneth Nicholson.
Kenneth Nicholson may be on the menswear schedule for New York Fashion Week, but this year, the Texan designer is diving into womenswear. While Nicholson has made a name for himself pushing the boundaries of men’s fashion by incorporating flowing silhouettes and decadent fabrics, he is opening up his label by incorporating female tailoring – without closing off his line to any bodies.
“I try on everything, so the designs can definitely go across gender lines,” Nicholson tells SLEEK ahead of his AW20 show. “Sometimes I see myself in a garment, other times I can see it on a cool girl.” It’s easy to picture the one-shoulder tops and chevron midi dresses that came down the catwalk incorporated into the designers closet, as well as those of the Hollywood cool girls, like Zendaya and Lupita Nyong’o, he takes inspiration from. Sill, Nicholson admits his main muse is actually a professor. “She probably wouldn’t be considered a fashion person by most people, but when I’m creating, I’m thinking about some of her lectures that I’ve listened to. I actually wanted to do this idea of a punk jacket with her name ‘Brittney Cooper’ in a very rock letter embroidery.”
Courtesy of Kenneth Nicholson.
Another woman Nicholson is taking inspiration from for this collection is his grandmother, who lived in Mobile Alabama, titling the collection From Grandmother’s Couch. “I was really riffing on this idea of grandmother’s couch and the perspective that you have while you’re sitting on this couch,” he says. “You may see a beat up lamp or the latch-hooking of a carpet. I was putting all of these notions together to create harmony, even though at times they might seem like they clash you can actually see how one sort of compliments the other.”
The pattern choices and fabrications make sense when placed into a living room context. The wide lapels on the suiting suggest the type of nostalgia you would find in your grandmother’s home, while baubles at the end of skirts resemble lampshades and draped fuzzy star tops look as though they could be unfurled into a throw blanket. For Nicholson, the choice to include women was not so much about breaking from his menswear practice, but expanding his ability to chase down a concept.
Courtesy of Kenneth Nicholson.
“The conversation is a forward one,” he says. “I never want to abandon anyone, so there has to be a common thread, but I have so much respect for the traditional way of making womenswear – being in a studio, making patterns, draping them on a dress form. It’s just so romantic.”
Romance was definitely not lacking form the show, which had the models walk around two glitter-covered models shadowboxing like a television match around which people all gather in the living room. It’s the kind of scene that Nicholson lived in his childhood.
“On any given Sunday you’ll see me with all of my cousins,” he says. “It was really steeped in tradition and there’s always just noise and all this kinetic energy you know and just being in that. I want the audience and the spectators to take away more than just the clothes; I want to give them something they can feel.”