You know the Wall Street neighborhood as a seat of power and a place of protest; now it also contains magic. In a nondescript building, up three flights of stairs, Sophie Andes-Gascon and Claire McKinney have set up a workshop, a home away from home, where photos are taped to the walls and their designs hang from nails in a row, a bit like Amish chairs . .
In May, the couple transformed their space into a pop-up shop, converting a storage closet into a dressing room. “It was just an incredible experience,” McKinney said. “We have created and sold over 200 original one-of-a-kind pieces; just things that were kind of sketches turned into ideas. It felt like a clown car thing where all these things came out from different areas and it worked for us. It made our little world seem a little bigger for a moment.” It was also the starting point for the brand’s dreamiest collection yet.
As counter-intuitive as it may seem, it was the designers’ use of structure that allowed the fantasy elements to flow. The cookie-cutter shift dress was added to SC103’s repertoire, offered in gilded linen and multi-fabric versions. It’s neat, efficient and beautiful, a bit Claire McCardellish in concept.
The decision to work with sloper patterns (basic patterns) seems to have been influenced by both McKinney giving an intro to the fashion class and “rethinking all those ideas” and Andes-Gascon’s previous experiences working with Susan Cianciolo. “I went in there and she had a little kimono pattern and a little dress pattern, and that’s what we would cut and sew, and then she would take it from there,” her protégé recalled.
“I think it felt like a risk in a way, following the rules actually seemed more of a challenge and an interesting way,” McKinney noted. It was a blessing, because it effectively controlled the cheerful ‘chaos’ of the decorations such as roses and Gothic letters. Metaphorically, it created a sandbox in which the duo could build castles. Among the pieces in the new offering was a striped, beautifully mitered piece that looked something like a child’s sailor suit you might see in a Prendergast painting of children in a park.
Without violating the youth, this collection was full of games and pageantry. The screen-printed and otherwise embellished tights worn with many of the looks added a touch of medieval feel; wide, multimedia straps brought a peacock-like element. This aspect of the collection had to do with how the designers spent their summers. McKinney was in Oregon at the Country Fair (which started as a Renaissance), and Andes-Gascon was in Brazil at the time of the Parintins Festival (where her parents met). A series of charming collage dresses were made with printed dishcloths that the latter brought back. What’s so exciting about the pageantry aspect of the garments, Andes-Gascon said, is that “there’s a shiny, very beautiful veneer everywhere, and then you get closer and you realize it’s all glued and taped together.” A reminder perhaps that dreams can come true.
Many pieces in this utterly enchanting collection looked as if children’s book drawings came to life. And there was a sense that if you listened very carefully in the silence of the studio, you could feel the beat of a drum or the clarion call of a horn inviting you to dance along. But the defining characteristic of this season’s pieces was freedom of expression. The success of the pop-up gave the designers the confidence to return to the intuitive way of working they started with and follow their joy. “It was so inspiring for us to see the power of what we were doing,” Andes-Gascon said. “I would sit at the sewing machine and make those pieces and then see that it was translated. It was just crazy.”
