Vaquera Makes Cheerleader Crop Tops and Seniors T-Shirts With a Twist
Indie fashion darling Vaquera looks to teenagers as its muses (and who could blame them?). For example, the New York designer’s spring/summer 19 runway show took place in a school cafeteria with designs that included an exaggerated graduation robe in a majestic royal blue and oversized matching cap, a crop top with a cheerleader megaphone, jeans imprinted with doodles, and a seniors tee that makes me ache with regret for throwing out my school’s version. School spirit shirts, the kind you get all your friends to sign at the end of the year, are inherently ephemeral and we can’t get enough of them.
Vaquera’s oversized ruffled dress—an off the rack version of the graduation cape that flew down the runway—is a satire on the oversized prom dress. The dress reminds me of other popular dresses that lean into ruffled extravagance, including those by designers such as Molly Goddard and Cecilie Bahnsen. These ruffled dresses counter notions of youth and femininity—the original meaning of ruffled dresses—with its hyperbolic designs.
Jeans with artistic doodles—an offshoot of buying pre-ripped jeans—have also been gaining momentum. Accordingly, Vaquera’s “School Spirit Jeans,” include Varsity letters, foam fingers, a recycling symbol, and an apple. A time capsule of a memory from a specific time in your life, each symbol and signature represents a memory of high school. Vaquera creates wearable fashion out of a cultural artifact.
We love the way the brand plays off tropes of high school cliques: think jocks, cheerleaders, nerds. And then, in an unexpected twist, blends the different cliques together to create eccentric, off-kilter designs. Moreover, the construction of the clothes embraces a DIY aesthetic as if it was created by high schoolers themselves. We’d let Vaquera school us in fashion any day.
Seniors Tee, $300
Yeller Tank, $200
Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
