Make It PERSONAL

How NEW YORK DESIGNERS are using RUNWAY SHOWS to tell more INTIMATE STORIES about WHO they are and WHAT their CLOTHES are ALL ABOUT

- ALISON S. COHN

ON THE FINAL DAY of New York Fashion Week's Spring 2023 season, Edvin Thompson, the Kingston, Jamaica-born, New York-based designer of Theophilio, brought Carnival to the runway. Drumbeats filled the show space. Models stomped the runway in rhythm, with several slinky, shimmery Y2K-inspired looks shown with towering feathered headdresses like those worn during the Caribbean festivals. One finale look featured a red feathered headpiece with Swarovski crystals and face chains strung with gold-dipped cowrie shells-styled with heels and a bikini.

"It's like an extension of myself and Carnival and just the overall vibrancy of my cultural heritage," Thompson says of putting his homages to Carnival headdresses on the runway. He and jewelry designer Chris Habana made them all by hand, including a three-foot-tall version in the colors of the Jamaican flag that a male model wore with sequined briefs peeking out from striped leather trousers.

Titled "Homecoming," the collection drew inspiration from Thompson's summer, which was bookended by a trip back to Jamaica and the West Indian Day Parade, held annually on Labor Day in Brooklyn. "In New York, there's pockets of different places all over. The parade definitely reminds me of Carnival season in Jamaica, from the food and all the people outside to the vibrancy and the music," he says. "It's so important for me to re-create that sense of nostalgia on the runway because it's one of the most honest ways I can really talk about where I'm from."