From the Chiasmus archive: "Rodarte. Spring RTW 2021 – New York Fashion Week" Posted on September 13th, 2021.

(Images: Rodarte 2021)

There is an overall mysterium to Rodarte which is reflective in its appeal as a cult fashion label, ensuring that it is a distinctly original brand created by sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy in 2005. Hailing from Aptos in California, they have been, in my opinion, on the forefront of representing the eros influenced stylizations of the last 10 years or in layman terms the lingerie out wear looks. Which for the most part, the sister’s have reworked these amorous styles into their own vision of fine tailoring and as self taught artisans, moving back and forth between the fanciful, gothic and sexy, in what can only be described as a fusion of phantasma and melodrama on the runway. Yet, there is also sophistication to which Kate and Laura parallel a couture finish to their collections, but of course they cannot be classified as Couturiers whilst designing and making most of the clothes from their small loft in Los Angeles. However, the duo, without any official training, have proven, over a decade or more, that they can match with their precision mastery, most high end designers within the fashion industry. 

The Mulleavy’s for their Fall 2022 array have returned to their more risqué stylizations in lieu of their Spring and Fall 2021 showings, that were both lookbook presentations in light of the Covid-19 restrictions that were still in place at the tail end of 2020, with runway shows now back, albeit more selective as fas as audiences go, Kate and Laura have set upon in stripping down the collection whilst offering to the viewer their unique layering and attention to details. As noted with the threeASFOUR Fall 2022 runway show, there does seem to be an esoteric, maybe even new age spiritual inclinations forming out of the pandemic, which, unfortunately is is still raging across America. The tenet of alternative spiritual beliefs is not a new concept and if Rodarte’s history is indicative of their own influences, it would be the metaphysical aspects of life, in regards to humanity’s place within nature that have shown up on a many of their runway shows. This viral pandemic has forced the human race to redefine itself within the natural environment, it has also, like many times before in history, tampered down our overconfidence and arrogance that somehow nature could inflict a virus on us in a detrimental and detached way. And we haven’t coped.

Their latest collection, as mentioned, returns back to the cultish, hippie-esque and even doomsday ethos of the Southern Californian allure of the 1970s and 1980s celebrity cult, which aesthetically has been heavily experimented with by ex-L.A. native and now Parisian local Rick Owens. So, maybe the pandemic in all of its societal destabilization is indeed making us all look at the meaning of life and for some it will include a renewed spiritual perspective, which could also manifest variants of occultism as an avenue to figure out our place in nature. And the Mulleavy’s could be leading the way with their modern day witches, with the use of silk throughout the collection, there are the Rodarte ethereal flowing dresses, lush thigh high splits, intertwined with lace and layered desire. It is by far one of the sleekest and most sensuous collections thus far for New York Fashion Week.

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(A.Glass 2021)