“When I started I wanted to be the dress that they wore somewhere. Now I just want to be the sweater that they pick up in the morning and a really good pant.” Search online for Brandon Maxwell’s name and the pictures of him helping Lady Gaga up the steps at the Met Gala are still among the first to pop up. But if he’s never really shaken his reputation as a fancy dress maker, he’s grown quite assured as a designer of all-American sportswear.
With Calvin Klein on the New York schedule for the first time in over six years—the Italian designer Veronica Leoni makes her debut there tomorrow—sportswear is bound to be one of the week’s main talking points. Maybe it was the Prince cover on the soundtrack, but I saw the 1980s in the oversized men’s dress shirts and swingy midi skirts in black leather on Maxwell’s runway. The power shoulders on some of the tailored coats, and the wrapped and draped necklines of others had a put-together polish that I also associate with that era, long before the advent of casual Fridays, athleisure, or any of the other developments that led to the informality of American dress in the 2020s—fashion week attendees being an exception to the rule.
Many of the outfits Maxwell showed could’ve walked right off the runway and onto the street—looks like the double-front leather moto jacket, striped shirt, and faded jeans (well, maybe not the kitten heels in today’s slush), or the plaid blazer, ribbed turtleneck, and belted leather track pants. To address the “sweater that they pick up in the morning” situation, Maxwell is working with the knitwear specialist Ryan Roche, and the terrific knits ranged from a chunky marled polo-neck pullover to slinky tube dresses in black animal spot intarsias. The “really good pants,” meanwhile, were usually accessorized with a kind of utility belt, a pair of flap pockets accenting the hips.
And what about the fancy dresses that were Maxwell’s bread-and-butter circa his 2015 beginnings? Basically absent. In their place, he showed a sleeveless dress in black crinkled silk with a gathered neckline and graceful volumes, and topped it with a matching coat whose hood was trimmed with sporty drawstrings—a contemporary way to dress up for a big evening out.