Addams Family Values

With its dark yet romantic, counterculture roots, gothic fashion has long offered an escapist source of inspiration for designers. Now a growing crop of young, independent labels are making it their soul and putting a spell on critics and customers alike. Keng yang shuen spotlights the ones to know.

PUPPETS AND PUPPETS

WHAT:

An under-the-radar newbie that’s the brainchild of New York-based mixed-media artist Carly Mark and fashion designer Ayla Argentina. Spring/Summer 2020 marks just their second season.

Why know it: Of late, a theatrical mood has been settling over New York Fashion Week – often typecast as the most commercial of the big four fashion weeks – and Puppets and Puppets is one of the names breathing new life into the scene. At its latest show held last September, there were richly textured 18th-century-style gowns with vaselike proportions (the inspiration was Russian aristocracy). On the tamer end: lace slips and sharply tailored suits that made for sensuous, ’90s-inflected everyday wear after one took apart the operatic runway styling. The founders profess to be fans of costumes and narrative-based collections, making the brand one of the finest and most authentic fashion-meets-art propositions of the moment. Factor in how the eco-conscious duo make most pieces by hand at home with upcycled fabrics and the label checks off two more boxes for today’s consumers: sustainability and exclusivity. Most pieces are one-offs, save for the embroidered T-shirts, and the only way to land one for now is via email (hit up its eponymous Instagram account).

PALOMO SPAIN

What:

It’s the fantastical five-year-old menswear label that Beyonce wore in the viral Venus-like portrait revealing the first public look at her twins, Rumi and Sir Carter, for Instagram. The hyper-feminine, floral silk organza gown with cascading ruffles – a piece from the brand’s Spring/Summer 2017 collection – was originally featured on a male model in that season’s lookbook.