On September 8th Watchfinder &Co presented the New York Men’s Day’s bi-annual menswear collective during NYFW at Canoe Studios. NYMD’s spring/summer collection presentation was split between a morning and an evening session. The afternoon session showcased emerging designer’s collections A.Potts, Carter Young, Chelsea Grays, Fried Rice, and the STOLEN GARMENT.
Watchfinder & Co presented NYMD’s 16th bi-annual menswear/genderless collective. Each designer held presentations within their own studio space, which was designed to reflect their brand identity. I loved moving from room to room to see each presentation freely within the two-hour time frame given to view all of the presentations. Alongside the in-person presentations, all ten designers from the morning and evening sessions will feature their collection on the CFDA’s digital platform, RUNWAY360.
A. Potts
Aaron Potts was born and raised in Detroit, MI to a working-class family with roots in the American South. A childhood filled with church, weekend fishing trips, going to work with his carpenter father, and shopping with his dress-loving mama would shape his future view of art and design. He discovered fashion in high school and never looked back. He graduated from Parsons, The New School for Design, and went on to intern for Marc Jacobs and Donna Karan. After an international career designing for Emanuel Ungaro, Anne Klein, Ellen Tracy, Escada, and Tamara Mellon and helping to launch brands such as Kaufmanfranco and TOCCIN, the time was right for Potts to create A.Potts. The brand embodies his embrace of creativity, diversity, artistic community, self-expression, unisex sensibility, and practicality. A.Potts was awarded the 2020 Fashion Group International Rising Star Award for All Gender collections.
Carter Young
Carter Altman started his career in fashion design at age 15 and boasts an impressive CV having worked with some of the industry’s best. His first experience with bespoke tailoring came in 2014 when Altman assisted Alexander Nash in learning the fundamentals of classical tailoring and garment construction. The following year Altman took his first foray into sportswear working under Nick Annacone at Kith. This is when the young designer began making his first original designs with a local factory outside his hometown of Detroit, MI. In 2016, he learned the ins and outs of the wholesale business while working for Helmut Lang. In 2017, he spent the summer working for Matthew Williams and his brand Alyx, in Ferrara, Italy. Just months before the move to Italy, Altman presented his first capsule collection at Linda Dresner and began work on the first full collection for his newly formed brand Carter Young.
Chelsea Grays
Chelsea Grays is an American fashion designer living and working out of Paris. She focuses on menswear for her own fashion label Chelsea Grays. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Chelsea attended the Academy of Art University in San Francisco where she earned an MFA, then was selected to travel to Paris for an extended study at La Chambre de Syndical Haute Couture. Initially, Chelsea studied psychology at North Carolina Central University and earned a BA which she intended to use as a counselor. She changed directions and quickly transformed those skills into fashion by raising awareness of social issues through each collection.
Fried Rice
FRIED RICE started out as a fun nickname for the artistic and cultural diversity of our neighborhood in New York City’s Lower East Side. Founder and urban designer Maya Wang joked back then that the neighborhood was “all mixed up in a good way, like fried rice.”In an era recently marked by xenophobia and fear of the “other”, we have always seen this small grid of city blocks as a place of inspiration, diversity, creativity, and affinity for the uncommon perspective. Since that beginning, FRIED RICE has come to represent an ethos and a (now global) community that celebrates and supports this diversity of creative and cultural perspectives in our own neighborhoods and in urban life around the world. Stylistically, FRIED RICE is distinguished by its 100% unisex perspective, quirky “mashed up” creativity, inventive styling details, and a mad obsession with outstanding fabrics. With this uniquely uncommon design and cultural perspective, the brand is now a go-to for creative artists internationally, as well as a fan favorite at some of the urban style’s most influential events like LA’s “Superbowl of urban culture” ComplexCon and Brooklyn NYC’s hugely impactful Afropunk Festival.
The STOLEN GARMENT
Jungwoo Park, a.k.a. Woo Park participated in the 2017 St Martin-in-the-Fields graduation collection show. The show, however, took an unexpected turn when one of Woo Park’s exhibited garments was stolen by a trespasser only hours after the show opened. The news spread quickly throughout the community and on social media, sparking a city-wide search effort. Soon after, people began to upload photos of a homeless person they spotted walking down the streets of London, wearing the stolen garment. Despite the remarkable discovery and the joint efforts with the London Police, the garment was never retrieved. This strange turn of events and never-ending search led Woo Park to launch his own label to celebrate the ever-ongoing show. The brand, THE STOLEN GARMENT was launched following his return to Korea. In addition to operating “the Stolen Garment,” Park has also been a member of the sibling artist group “Geometric Study.” The annual exhibition/performance of the group has been one of many ways in which the brand has broadened and developed its narrative through artistic collaborations. Awards Woo Park have received include, second place in “2018 Survival Fashion K” and “Seoul’s 10 Soul” in 2020 and 2021. Woo Park is currently a resident designer at Seoul Fashion Hub.