Pyer Moss Spring 2016: Where to begin?

Pyer Moss taps into the zeitgeist for Spring/Summer 2016, channeling the growing outrage around police brutality into a tempestuous collection.

Against a palette of grey, black and white, designer Kerby Jean-Raymond splashes the bleakly familiar slogan “I Can’t Breathe,” and splatters sneakers in red paint. Blue-collar utilitarianism figures prominently, if winkingly, in the one-shoulder overalls, mesh leggings and army-green utility jackets.

One senses the designer’s restlessness and frustration, his desire to align with and give voice to the challenges facing the oppressed. And yet this overstyled collection ends up undermining itself. Straitjackets with a profusion of tabs that serve no apparent function and multilayered trousers that nevertheless leave limbs vulnerable and exposed – such details feel fatuous, at cross-purposes with the urgency of the message they purport to convey.

Or perhaps futility and vulnerability are the message? Overly complicated looks for overly complicated times?

Who knows. Like a Pyer Moss Spring/Summer 2016 look, it’s hard to know where to begin.

Pyer Moss Spring 2016:
Styling: Anthony Hendrickson; The Hands of God; Gro Curtis
Hair: John Reyman for Aveda
Make-up: Janell Geason for Aveda
(photo courtesy of Getty Images)

Photos: Pyer Moss Spring 2016 – New York Fashion Week
all photos courtesy of Getty Images