Sunnei Fall/Winter 2022-23

Kansai Yamamoto held his first major London show in 1971, becoming the first Japanese designer to show there, years ahead of Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto, or Rei Kawakubo's own international breakthroughs. His bold, theatrical jumpsuits and capes got him onto the cover of Harper's & Queen almost immediately, and that cover is reportedly what caught David Bowie's attention. Bowie commissioned him directly for the 1972 Ziggy Stardust tour and later the Aladdin Sane tour, resulting in some of the most recognizable costumes in rock history, including the black-and-white "Tokyo Pop" jumpsuit and the "Space Samurai" look, both built on Yamamoto's gender-blurring, kabuki-influenced design language.

Studio 54's door policy, run by co-founder Steve Rubell, was famously inconsistent and based more on gut instinct about the crowd's energy than any written dress code. But one rule held firm for practical reasons rather than style ones: polyester was reportedly turned away at the door because it would visibly melt under the club's extremely hot stage lighting rigs. That made for a genuinely awkward contradiction, since polyester was one of the most common fabrics in 1970s disco fashion, meaning plenty of people showed up in exactly the wrong material for the era's most famous disco club. The club itself only operated for about 33 months, opening April 26, 1977, and shutting down in early 1980 after owners Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager were convicted of tax evasion for skimming an estimated $2.5 million, as much as 60% of the club's total receipts. Despite that short run, it remains the most referenced club in fashion history, largely because of its deep ties to designer Halston (Roy Halston Frowick), who dressed much of the club's regular crowd and became visually synonymous with its whole era.

Zelda Wynn Valdes (1901–2001) built one of the more quietly influential careers in 20th-century American fashion. She trained on piano as a girl but learned to sew in her family's tailoring shop, which led to her becoming the first African American saleswoman and tailor at a high-end Manhattan boutique. She opened her own shop in White Plains in 1935, then in 1948 opened "Zelda Wynn" on Broadway, often described as the first Black-owned business on that street. Her client list a galaxy of stars: Dorothy Dandridge, Mae West, Eartha Kitt, Marlene Dietrich, and Josephine Baker all wore her designs, and Ella Fitzgerald famously needed four gowns made in five days ahead of a 1955 Hollywood engagement. In 1949 she also co-founded the National Association of Fashion and Accessory Designers, one of the first trade organizations for Black designers. In the early 1960s, Hugh Hefner brought her in to create the costume that would define the Playboy Club brand, and in 1963 she became the first designer to stage a fashion show inside a Playboy Club, a series billed as "Zelda at the Playboy." Starting in 1969 or 1970 (sources differ on the exact year), Arthur Mitchell hired her as principal costumer for his newly founded Dance Theatre of Harlem, a role she held for roughly three decades, working on 82 ballet productions across 22 countries until her death in 2001.