Brooklyn-based designer HELENA EISENHART unveiled their Fall Winter 2023 Collection, that deconstructs traditional uniforms and dress codes, on February 15th, during the recently finished New York Fashion Week. The unisex collection made from up-cycled and deadstock materials, explores uniforms as both a way to blend in and to show identity. The neutral color palette reflects numbed and dissociative reaction to the world around us. This was Helena’s debut at NYFW.
FALL WINTER 2023.24 WOMENSWEAR COLLECTIONS
As a queer, mixed race person living in New York City, I often feel both isolated and celebrated at the same time. Uniforms and dress codes have been a big inspiration for my work since it is a clear way to share multiple identities through manners of dressing. It’s both a way to blend in and to show power and distinction. To dress according to a code, can also mean, to dress in disguise.
Artificial intelligence and dolls are often an inspiration for my work because of how they represent an altered perception of reality. The movie La Haine is a regular inspiration for my work for its view on youth culture and abuse of power, as well as Gregg Araki’s teen apocalypse trilogy for its angsty, queer asian american perspective on isolation and hysteria. – Helena Eisenhart
