On Wednesday morning, two days before the official start of New York Fashion Week, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez’s spring 2025 Proenza Schouler collection wafted through an airy, light-filled Tribeca loft like a cool breeze signaling a change of season.
Was intense change afoot? Not exactly. The oversize tailoring, fringed knits, and long dresses crafted with the mildest of minimalist deconstruction were Proenza through and through. But there was more to it than in recent seasons. McCollough said as much backstage, noting that after a couple of collections spent reducing and stripping things down to the brand’s “core,” there was nothing left to strip away. So, they built the garments back up.
Day clothes were marked by stripes—vertical and horizontal—on voluminous, windswept shirt dresses, wrapped knits, and belted coats. Hernandez mentioned the work of the American artist Barnett Newman, whose linear, striped, and square paintings were a source of inspiration for the Proenza Schouler collection. The influence of Newman’s works led to a maritime quality for spring: low-riding trousers with sailor buttons, and shirts with the flapped collars of naval uniforms. Simple silhouettes anchored the looks, which the designers plied with folds and flaps set artfully askew. A khaki shirt had a trench belt as a collar. A leather apron dress with giant buckles on the straps wrapped at the hips as if a shirt was tied around the waist. Metal belt loops trimmed jackets. Dresses were cut with grommeted panels. A series of finale looks featured strapless dresses trimmed in long, quietly wild lavender and ivory fringe. Everything had a deliberately undone, haphazard finish to it. “We just sort of went with it like a stream of consciousness,” Hernandez said. At times, they pushed the freewheeling details to the limit—but they never crossed it.
