Fashion’s current infatuation is with all things demure; not surprisingly, Elena Velez, a maker of “anti-fragile fashion,” isn’t having it—or at least not the way it’s served up on TikTok. It’s might be tempting to roll your eyes or raise an eyebrow when you hear that OnlyFans was one of the sponsors of the spring show and that the designer expanded her guest list, as is her prerogative, to include the Hallowed Sons, a biker gang she met on a cigarette break outside of a bar in Brooklyn, as guests. Yet at a preview, the designer, who has burned many bridges, suggested she wanted to try to build them instead. I have “this longing and this desire to overcome this idea of being fashion’s problematic face or overcoming this feeling of being misunderstood and wanting to show the goodwill and the goodness that we’re trying to do with the brand.”
Coming from a designer who has been labeled a provocateur, the idea of approaching things from a more positive place was more than welcome, especially as it has often felt that Velez conflated strength with aggression or started from a place of defensiveness, perhaps related to class consciousness.
The personal and the political came together in a collection in which Velez grappled (sans mud) with the current political situation in the States. The idea, she explained, was “reimagining the negative stereotypes around patriotism or affiliation with, and passion and care for, a place that you call home. So we’re looking at all sorts of different allegorical female representations of national aspiration or an identity… such as Marianne from the French Revolution, or Lady Columbia, or the Statue of Liberty. But then also trying to find a way to integrate that with a more contemporary interpretation of what that girl could be—maybe she’s the cheerleader or the Miss America sort of pageant queen—and just trying to merge these two really interesting universes around womanhood and what she can symbolize to a people and to a place.”
The collection takes its title, La Pucelle (The Maiden), from the pen name of Joan of Arc: Heroine, Catholic martyr, and prtoto-feminist, who became a symbol of France, and freedom, after the revolution. Joan might as well be a patron saint of fashion/pop culture as well; The Smiths sing about her, and she has recently returned to the catwalk care of Dilara Findikoglu and Balenciaga’s Demna. The armor is only part of her appeal; the idea of a strong, independent woman is, even in 2024, provocative. (It’s ironic that the presidential debate took place hours after Velez’s show.)
