New York-based designer Victor Alfaro thinks a bit differently about fashion. He doesn’t like to produce collections just because the fashion calendar demands one, and he doesn’t believe traditional runway shows are as useful and productive as they once were.
So when he put together soft, organic patterns and relaxed, unbound shapes in his current, ready-to-shop selection, he wasn’t necessarily thinking about them as “spring/summer 2017,” but as pieces you would need and want at this time of year, in your kind of world.
All images courtesy of Victor Alfaro
And when it came time to show these clothes to the world—well, he definitely went outside the box. Instead of hosting any sort of show or presentation and inviting the press, he and his team produced an undercover film during key moments of last season’s Paris Fashion Week.
“I really had been thinking,” Victor told me. “What if I just bring my girls? What if I brought my models to three top shows in Paris and let them walk through the crowds?”
He knew the light would be magical—it always is in Paris. And he knew that his goal with the collection—to address the occasions of a woman’s life, but to create a new way of casual dressing, too—would fit seamlessly with the Parisian lifestyle.
“What if she needs a long dress?,” he had asked himself, and then given himself the additional challenge of making the dress super adaptable. “How would it need to be so that she could just add a tee to it later?”
And on and on throughout the collection’s elements.
And in the streets. His models walked confidently and casually through Paris while the brand’s camera crew simply let the action unfold.
And there was action. The hoards of street style photographers were duped; they had no idea Victor’s team had planted the girls and that they were filming a video.
“One of the girls was sort of freaked out, actually. One of the photographers was chasing her down the street trying to get his shot. Then, the next morning, there they were—on all the top blogs.”
What he said next indicates where his heart is. “There was a connection. The clothes really made a connection.” Victor’s big takeaway wasn’t necessarily the “free publicity”—it was the proof that he had made a collection that resonated.
It made people stop and look—and it made at least one person break into a run.
Explore: current season Victor Alfaro | all designer collections
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