Nestled in the round curvature of the Guggenheim Museum’s amphitheatre in New York, Dear Frances and the eveningwear phenom Jason Wu combined a shared passion for craft and timeless style in an exclusive capsule for Wu’s FW23 show at New York Fashion Week.
Inspired by the botanical photography of the 20th Century artist Karl Blossfeldt, Wu’s enthralling collection riffed off contrasting themes of strength and fragility, perfection and imperfection, masculinity and femininity, with every creation capturing a restrained, subversive mood. Romantic silk dresses were topped with mannish structured coats, while menswear-inspired tailored gowns were softened with feminine chiffon trims and exquisitely beaded webs.
Reinforcing these opposing forces at play, Dear Frances designed an exclusive capsule of stripped-back silhouettes to bring further edge to Wu’s softest silhouettes. Building on Jane Frances’s minimalist aesthetic, silhouettes balanced strong leather straps and pointed toes with softly curving footbeds and feminine stilettos sharpened to an empowered pencil-thin heel.
The capsule marks Dear Frances’s fourth collaboration with the New York label, in which we find constant companionship for its value and pedestal of home-grown craftsmanship. For his FW2023 collection, Wu thrived on the creativity of his New York atelier, showcasing garments as exquisitely made on the inside as they are on the outside. As always, every pair of Dear Frances shoes in the capsule was designed in our studio in London and handcrafted by our team of artisanal shoemakers in Italy, using techniques that have been passed down for generations.
As if to underline the collaboration’s commitment to slow, considered fashion, each model walked around the amphitheatre at a gentle pace, allowing the audience time to appreciate the beauty in exquisitely-made craft and artisanal touch.
