There has been a lot of talk this season and last about a return to “real clothes.” But what does that even mean, seeing that each brand contextualizes that in-the-worldness differently? For Claire McKinney and Sophie Andes-Gascon of SC103 that involved shaking free of the dreaminess of their colorful and sparkly spring collection in order to be able to move toward something that feels “clean and strong and unified….We wanted to reflect this idea of hunkering down and sustaining,” explained Andes-Gascon. The first look is a monochrome white leather coat with hand-cut fringes made from leftover materials. The moody palette and the designers’ use of color-blocking, rather than prints and embellishments, make this feel like a pared-back offering, relatively speaking.
“We felt really attracted to returning to reality and feeling like we were capturing something that felt rooted in real people doing things that they know how to do, which led us to working with a photographer who works in a photojournalistic manner, Ashley Markle,” explained McKinney. Having added a choreographer and dancers to the team, SC103 staged a freeform performance, something that was sketched out and malleable rather than set down in ink, and allowed room for spontaneity. The shoot “just unfolded as we were working and it more or less mirrored the way that Claire and I work,” said Andres-Gascon.
As the duo work with upcycled, vintage, and found objects, their output evolves from materials rather than a moodboard. They are hands-on designers who leave traces of their craft in the clothes, which often have a homespun quality. For fall, knits are spliced into a jacket in a way that doesn’t feel so patch-worky. McKinney’s beloved railroad stripe is cut into what looks like a backwards shirt but which has a necktie that can be worn several ways. It has a sort of Byronic air and is appropriately called the sonnet top.
Most polished were the looks in a small plaid, its orderly checks seemed to somehow outline the silhouette neatly. Dressiest is a drop-waist frock made of a washed semi-sheer silk to layer over pants; most jaw-dropping is a patched suede dress with what McKinney describes as “split-open inside-out diamond darts.” Impressive. A raglan-sleeve top and dress with diagonal zippers running from shoulder to neck added some sportiness to the lineup which is captured so beautifully by Markle.
The dancers seem unaware of the camera as they observe their movements in mirrors or interact with each other. This season has revealed a great yearning for connection, and it can be found here in images of people moving together. Their physicality is important, as it is always in SC103’s designs. There aren’t any overt ’80s references in this collection, yet there’s somehow a touch of Flashdance about it all.
