Reese Cooper Men’s and Women’s Spring 2021
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After months of lockdown, Reese Cooper went stir crazy and drove to a lake. Needing to be outside, he’d go three times a week.
The designer wanted to illustrate the feeling he had being in nature for the spring coed collection. Its color palette, with browns, blues, greens and yellows, reflects that.
For the camo prints he generates each season, Cooper gathered up some random vegetation from the lake area. “Then I just studio-photographed it, compiled it into a camouflage and printed that onto a couple of things,” he explained.
This men’s wear is full of functional clothing that could be worn for fishing or hiking, yet elevated to streetwear with Cooper’s careful, artful execution.
Blue rainwear is printed with pebbles, while beige cargo pants are patterned with green plant silhouettes.
“This is my favorite women’s stuff that I’ve ever done,” said the designer, adding from now on he’s showing men’s and women’s wear simultaneously. “The collection works stronger when they’re shown together instead of having to create a new narrative four times a year.”
For women, a cropped blue zip jacket was paired with forest green cargo pants embellished with tied bands over the knees. An asymmetric ecru wrapped skirt is painted with a rose and an eagle motif.
“The collection was about bringing a bunch of people that I’m friends with together,” Cooper said. His fashion video’s director, for instance, was longtime friend Andre Bato.
Like the spring collection, Cooper’s video was entitled “River Runs Through” and presents his fashion on people walking through the river. This was meant to contrast with his last men’s show, in Paris’ Palais de Tokyo museum, where the set looked like the outdoors.
“With this one we had the chance to basically create the real-life reference board for what I was trying to say the whole time,” he said. “The same in concept, but incredibly different in execution.”
Launch Gallery: Reese Cooper Men's Spring 2021
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