Before Neil Grotzinger settled on a direction for their new fall collection, the New York designer was thrifting—as they often do—and stumbled upon a skeleton shirt that was once part of a Halloween costume. Not very high-fashion, you might think—and yet the spooky piece, particularly the exposed bones, ignited an intriguing idea. “I started thinking about the concept of interiors as exteriors,” said Grotzinger. What if, the designer wondered, they sourced secondhand pieces, and then turned them all inside-out—finding beauty within what is usually concealed?
That idea drove Grotzinger’s new assortment: The collection was entirely upcycled, and Grotzinger reversed suit jackets, coats, and skirts to display their inner workings. Many of the pieces, like wool blazers, had a sharp yet stuffy corporate feel to them: Grotzinger wanted to give a deliberate subversion to 9-to-5 dressing. “It was all about informal formalities,” said the designer. “I do not have a corporate air, but I explored things that do, and my interrogation of that ended up being a little antagonistic.”
These were certainly not your average Wall Street looks. Grotzinger flipped pieces that had interesting linings or inner fabrications, then added colorful beading overtop, adorning them in various vine-like patterns—almost like fabulous mold spreading across the garment. One of the gray blazers had its navy silk lining as front panels, and a customized name tag from its previous owner (“exclusively tailored for Andrew C. Estill.”) It was an interesting idea—to take a suit once made custom for someone else, and to give it a whole new life, this time, adorned with a flashy bedazzled trim. “In a way, it was a reflection on queerness, and the suppression of sexual identity throughout history,” said Grotzinger. “[Queerness was] something that existed only on the interior. I wanted it to be very loud and gay.”
It was an admirable idea, to take discarded Liz Claiborne and Ann Taylor office garb, and make it feel more youthful and fun. But many of the reversed pieces could have used some alteration or an updated shape: simply flipping a jacket inside out, and then adding crystals to it, was more an act of adornment than proper design. The skirts and trousers Grotzinger paired those pieces with did deliver some original silhouettes, however. Grotzinger conceived voluminous skirts that were made up of several culottes hand-stitched together. Some of them also had a colorful bathing suit or tank top stitched to one side.
The whimsical approach to upcycling showed that beauty does not always have to mean wearing something brand-new. With a little imagination, a hot glue gun, and a dream, you can make just about any vintage find feel inspired. “This collection reminded me of playing dress up as a teen, and having really eclectic outfits that no one really understood,” said Grotzinger. The clothes might not be for everybody, but the vision was there, and well-executed.