“When I was much younger I remember feeling that Mexicans in the US were a bit like us Arabs in Paris. We were both the outsiders, the underdogs who created our own culture, and our own way of dressing in clothes that are not super expensive but which have a really defined style. Now, 25 years after falling in love with that culture, this is my homage.” So said Charaf Tajer before this well attended Casablanca show this evening. More notable than the high-profile attendees who wore the brand top-to-toe—because business as usual—were the industry eminences who chose to be here for the first time: managerial changes inside this fledgling brand are bringing a cloutier crowd.
They were greeted by a runway parked with four lowrider cars, emblems of that Mexican-American youth culture Tajer had related to from afar. However, as this collection started rolling out from backstage, it quickly became apparent that his starting point had evolved into a broader social portrait of what Tajer termed “LA subcultures.”
We started with pinstripe blazer dresses and a leather-edged Chanel-esque set in mesh before a suit that didn’t have the waistline to look zoot: Tajer’s release said the tailoring was inspired by Pat Riley in his pomp. There was a luxury-amplified “homage” to Chicano tropes that featured a crystal-set hair net, satin work shirt worn open from the top, a bandana folded into the waistline of shorts, plus socks and slides. This and other looks veered shakily into the realm of gangster cosplay: possibly dangerous, and not in the manner intended.
The house’s graphics team adapted the free-wheelin’, hard-tripping aesthetic of Californian psychedelic artists such as Rick Griffin into the seasonal house font and house-specialty foulard prints. There was a nice stoplight-on-windscreen gradient glare to the multicolor fades in crystal edged shirting. A vaguely Venice surf-inflected section betrayed the ocean between this collection’s conception and subject, applying candy tones to Dogtown codes: the oversized denim edged in rainbow frays was a strong look. Tajer said he’d been in touch with Bootsy Collins (who’d wanted to attend) and that look 49 was a specific tribute. This Casablanca homage felt sincere and contained some appealing garments, yet was sometimes apparently as underthought as the fate of a GTA bystander.
