The Fabric Unites: Nicholas K Spring/Summer 2014 Collection Review

Tribes can be anywhere. They can dwell on the plains, up in the arctic or way down in the jungle deep. From a modern standpoint, what's notable is not just that they exist but how their existence influences other more progressive cultures. It could stand to reason that the influences could be so grand due to the preservation of the rites of passage, rituals and adornment that often seems opposite to the rapid daily pace in cultures of those looking at the tribe. There is also something uniquely organic about what the simplicity of the vacuum that certain tribes dwell in teach us about what we overvalue and undervalue.

I always like to see how a designer can take influence from a tribe of people and make the outcome sway more integrated to modern inner-city society and less like a literal interpretation. Not many fashionable people want to wear a costume representative of a tribe admired, they'd rather wear components that show they admire in their own modern way. Enter Nicholas K Spring 2014.

Inspired by the indigenous peoples that formed the Ndee and Apache nations, The Kunz brothers took the medicine man lore, shamanistic mysticism and natural earth wrought metals and textures to make a collection that was both purist, nomadic and enlightened. The collection had a languid fluidity to it with washed silks, drapey leathers, wispy cottons and gossamer-like knits. Long duster jackets, oversized necklines, puddly collars & lapels and loose cut trousers & shorts all had a swaddling-like and comfortable quality to them.

Colors and prints hearkened to the land and abstract imagery of the Western US terrain which created a beautiful palette on which to infuse color from other pieces of one's wardrobe or to display the beauty of the fresh pattern-making. With melding and cleverly interpreted collections like this, apparently tribes can exist in the metropolis as well.