Telfar Played All Your Favorite Pop Songs At His Spring 2015 NYFW Show

by Gaby Wilson 6 mins ago

If you don’t already know about Telfar, get acquainted. The eponymously named line is the brainchild of Telfar Clemens and has garnered a rapidly growing cult following which boasts some of the fashion and art worlds’ most influential tastemakers. To name a few: Dev Hynes/Blood Orange, Haley Wollens, Been Trill‘s Heron Preston and Ruth Gruca, and the VFiles set).

We went to his Spring/Summer 2015 show—a minimalist runway presentation in downtown New York, scored only with a piano serving up delicate instrumental renditions of all your favorite pop songs—to get the first look at what he has in store for the next time the sun rolls around. In short, there’s a smattering of muted pastels, experimental silhouettes and peekaboos, and a smart deconstruction of classic American fashion staples like the pique polo, the lightweight summer knit, and of course, denim.

Telfar Yunis Torres and Therell Spires / Photo: Colin Douglas Gray

MTV: Tell me about your inspiration for Spring/Summer 2015.

TELFAR: My inspiration for this collection was America with a twist on global fashion. I just thought, “Well, what’s summer? What speaks ‘summer’ to me?” and integrated a lot of my staple designs into this summer world.

Telfar CyKeem White / Photo: Colin Douglas Gray

I definitely see a twist on country club…

Yea! I call it “fringe prep”! It’s kind of, like, they’re preppy, but something’s not quite right.

Telfar Yanii Charms / Photo: Colin Douglas Gray

Exactly. There’s a lot of that coming through.

Also, I’m very influenced by pop culture! I mean, look at the music in the show: these kind of, like, piano renditions of Top 40 pop music. I think what’s happening in American pop music plays a part in everybody’s life, even across the world. We wanted to transpose that with the music and kind of set a tone for what American fashion is.

Telfar Shevon Hoyte and Evy / Photo: Colin Douglas Gray

I was just about to ask you about the soundtrack! I loved what you did there, showing this very subversive collection with a playlist of songs we all know and love but are turned on their head.

When I was making this collection—I love the radio—so I just listened to the radio and was very inspired by that. You know, there’s something about when everyone knows a song, even down to a little baby, that I have such respect for. It’s in the supermarket, it’s everywhere! And then…you know when you go to Nordstrom in the holidays and you hear the piano player playing Christmas music? We wanted to create that feel but with a twist. Really playing on—this is a song that everybody knows, but we’ve obscured it. In the same way that the music is classical but not, the outfits are kind of classy but…not. So, it’s like a twist on what’s classy and what’s normal.

Nathan Whipple / Photo: Colin Douglas Gray

It’s so smart. Also, TBH, I’d download that soundtrack in a heartbeat!

I have it on my phone! The piano player—his name is Nathan Whipple—he does a lot of this stuff on YouTube, and we asked him to do a lot of the songs he knew that were Top 40 hits. So, it was “Summertime Sadness” by Lana Del Rey, “I Knew You Were Trouble” by Taylor Swift, “Diamonds” by Rihanna, “Feel The Moment” by Pitbull and Christina Aguilera, “Dark Horse” by Katy Perry, and “Dynamite” by Taio Cruz. We really wanted things that were recognizable, but at the same time, you had to wait a second for it to come to you.

And that’s one of the coolest things about pop music, too, is that it becomes the soundtrack to your life no matter what.

Or where you are! There’s no way around it. Even if you’re not interested, you kind of have to be interested because it’s everywhere. Like, you’re running errands and you hear Lorde and “Royals,” and I mean, unless you had your earbuds in 24/7, you know that song.

Telfar Photo: Colin Douglas Gray

Back to the clothes, was there anything new construction-wise that you were really excited about this season?

Construction-wise, yes. I’ve never done knits before, so this was my first time making knit sweaters. All of the sweaters have my logo in pointelle knit into the fabric. We were kind of inspired by little girls’ panties. All of the t-shirts and things like that have that same thing in them. It’s kind of like how pop music is really subtly ever-present, there’s a similar thing happening here—even though it’s a white t-shirt, the logo is subtly all over it.

Telfar Photo: Colin Douglas Gray

And you’ve got a great update on sneakers happening this season, too.

Oh yes, those are women’s ballet flats mixed with men’s Vans. They’re very unisex. I like stuff that feels comfortable and that everybody can wear. That was the idea with the casting, too. We wanted a very wide variety of people. It wasn’t one walk of life or any kind of genre that was associated with this collection. Just clothes that take into consideration the whole world. I think a lot of things are moving that way, even back to music—pop is rock and hip-hop is pop and everything is all mixed together!

Telfar Photo: Colin Douglas Gray