Aganovich Couture Fall 2018
For Aganovich’s first couture collection, after being invited to show on the schedule as a guest by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, the brand’s designer duo Nana Aganovich and Brooke Taylor opted to riff on pieces from their fall ready-to-wear line, which is entering stores now.
“Because this is our first couture show, our main inspiration was to do couture — meaning, using the fabrics of the ateliers and seeing how we can push things with the fabric in a couture way,” said Aganovich backstage before the display, the house’s first since 2016.
“The funny system we are trying out is to divide the commercial necessity and the artistic necessity,” continued Taylor. “So the patterns and the variations on this collection are [already] sold as ready-to-wear.” He called the process “supersatisfying.”
The pair turned to the likes of Maison Lesage for embroidery, artisanal leather suppliers, Manolo Blahnik for brocade shoes and Stephen Jones for headpieces. A black dress from the rtw collection was reworked in a more fragile material that took one full month to stitch together.
The luxurious fabrics were a boost for Aganovich’s collection, which otherwise had all the signatures of the house — a romantic, Dickensian feel plus plenty of deconstruction. A long light-blue, floral jacket came paired with a multilayered, gauzy pink-and-peach skirt. A frothy white organza shirt piled to a model’s neck topped a high-waisted, fitted black skirt.
Aganovich’s intriguing, sculptural forms that sometimes feel complicated as rtw pieces seemed a better fit when elevated to couture.
Launch Gallery: Aganovich Couture Fall 2018
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