Let’s set the scene: Miranda has just broken up with Steve and is spending her first New Year’s Eve alone (alone with Chinese food – when you know, you know). Carrie is sleeping in her apartment when Miranda calls her to talk. “Auld Lang Syne” starts playing in the background, a tearjerker for those familiar with it Sex and the city tradition. Carrie throws on a fur coat and a sequined hat over her pajamas, throws on some sensible heels and hops on the subway (yes, Carrie took the subway) in the middle of a snowstorm to head downtown. She knocks on Miranda’s door and hugs her just as the ball drops: “You’re not alone,” she whispers in her ear.
Consider this autumn arrangement, part two of Mark Gong’s contemporary reappraisal of Sex and the city. Last season, Gong looked at Samantha Jones and contextualized his collection within an imaginary interpretation of the Fashion offices in the World Trade Center. This time he found inspiration in a moving scene from the first SATC film and modeled his show space on Central Park after a snowfall. “Fashion should be fun,” the designer said backstage. (There’s certainly something comical about this reviewer flying 18 hours, anyway, to get straight back to New York City – take a piece of home with you wherever you go, they say.)
Gong has developed a style of storytelling that relies on his entertaining (and often viral) theatrics. After the show, a colleague commented that his collections have become more commercialized over time. That’s a good thing. Gong has matured, but he’s managed to keep it fun while delivering a few successful products.
For fall, Gong honed in on Carrie’s look — soft fur coats over lush silky separates — and added his signature “Gong girl” cargos, denim suits and going-out minidresses and blouses to the mix. He cut mean, broad shoulders, which were structured and bulging in his tailoring and collapsed in his buttery, cool, girls’ leather outerwear. The whole thing was designed to look a bit messy, very haphazardly put together, but it worked. “The idea is that you save your messy self for your best friends and for the indoors, but here they are wearing it down,” he said. The designer himself was just going through a breakup and explained that this collection was not so much an ode to Sarah Jessica Parker and Sex and the city then for the real women who helped him through that difficult time.
Gong took care of the styling here. He knows exactly what young women want to wear, but also what they consider “adult” clothing (a category in which Carrie Bradshaw is an oracle). An overcoat closed with one hand, a gigantic leather jacket worn over a tiny going-out dress, a crew-neck sweater worn over a chic shirt: these are the things twenty-somethings do to ”adult”.
“She might be a little drunk,” Gong said, pointing to his plate. “This one,” he joked about the lone model walking the runway, presumably listening to yet another voiceover about her best friend getting back with her ex, “she’s just over it, but she still shows up.” In life, you can be either a troublemaker or a lifesaver: the friend who always needs help or the one who is always willing to lend a hand. But both types will be well served by this Mark Gong collection.
