Gabe Gordon AW23
New York, NY - Gabe Gordon showcases his A/W 2023 Ready-To-Wear Collection consisting of 21 looks.
There is something to be said about the dead of winter, the need felt to whisper, the way we all eventually forget… What it was like to not be constantly longing for something, like moths to flame, me to this feeling I cannot shake, burning but unable to feel warmth. The lake has frozen over, numbness ensues mid-glide, wanting to put our trust in something we ask it to hold our weight, to hold us, as we spin. For a snowglobe is just a moment sanctified, here we enter it just like death enters us all, wholly and without a trace.
This season, Gabe Gordon takes us back. We place our foreheads on the glass of a slightly cracked, backseat car window and stare, at nothing in particular as the trees stand bare, echoing monotony, Lana Del Rey oozes through the aux and the sky continues to gray until the sun sets. We’re heading to the suburbs of Ridgefield, Connecticut where Gordon grew up and while this isn’t necessarily home, it may be genesis.
Speaking of beginnings, when Gabe was studying at school, his father passed away, intrinsically altering his connection to clothing. Agitated and grieving whilst reconciling the fraying edges of his own identity, making clothing became about feeling connected to things he had lost and in turn preserving nostalgia – allowing one to drape themselves in a transitory emotion, a single oscillation. As Gordon refined his knitwear practice, he coupled it with the intimacy of hand-dyeing fabrics, further exploring notions of decay, creating new histories within the cloth. Stains too evolve. Additionally by innovating with eyelets, he’s created a signature technique dubbed the “moth hole” that disavows purity, reflecting the growth that comes with exposure and acceptance. What we wear can be who we are.
This season, Gordon wanted to allow himself to create something that was more free-flowing, untethered from grief. Ironically, he found the best way to do that was to allow himself to go back to the place where his father died, to write a new ending. Inspired by 1960s ice-skating ensembles and workwear, starchy fabrics, glitter and frills alike, he brings a new spirit to a familiar environment. The collection, shot by Walker Bunting, features the inescapable presence of the moth-holes but in a way that doesn’t try to hide them, championing the tatters they will leave. Gordon universalizes the drama of reckoning, romanticizing the quiet moments that make us all think that life is a movie and the silence of winter is this season’s soundtrack.
LOOKBOOK CREDITS
Styling: Daniel Gaines
Make-up: Grey Hoffman
Hair: Antonia Steinberg
ABOUT GABE GORDON
Gabe Gordon is a textile artist who launched his eponymous label in 2019. His knits reflect the vulnerable space between comfort and discomfort while marrying warmth and breathability. Designs begin with the development of the fabric, with hand-loomed and hand-dyed cloth. With a focus in sustainable materiality, he uses discarded yarns sourced from local mills. Skin-hugging pieces come in a range of earth tones and degrees of distress, representing how fabric is in a constant state of becoming. Inspired by nostalgia and the natural decay of clothing, Gabe Gordon pieces come together as a personal narrative.
PRESS
http://officemagazine.net/enter-gabe-gordons-winter-wonderland