Fashion’s New Darling
If you asked me what my favorite brand is right now, I'd quickly respond with Bode. Following its Spring 2020 show at Paris fashion week, the brand has now had two runway shows in Paris, as well as being the first brand designed by a woman to officially show at Men’s Fashion Week in New York. With each collection, Bode has garnered more attention from fashion enthusiasts and insiders, alike; so much so that it won the 2019 CFDA Emerging Designer of the Year award. All that being said, it is very interesting that a fashion brand like Bode is taking over the conversation during a time of peak-streetwear, but it is a nice look at what the future of menswear has in store. Looking to the core of Emily Bode’s designs allows one to understand the big moment her brand is having.
I think one of the easiest ideas to pick up from Bode is how simple the designs of the clothing are from a consideration of silhouette. A quick glance through her look books and runway shows reveals that Emily Bode chooses to use a lot of streamlined, minimal, and utilitarian shapes in her clothing. Many of her pieces take the form of simple designs that are expertly cut. The basic nature of the shape of her collection makes the brand very approachable to fashion novices, but her attention to details keeps experts (like myself) interested.
Bode contrasts these very minimal, utilitarian cuts with very eccentric, vintage fabrics. What the brand is probably best known for is its quilted outerwear, which is made from swathes of vintage fabrics that can date back hundreds of years. I find it fascinating to see a contemporary woman design clothing for the modern man using classic styles and centuries-old fabrics. Emily Bode has created a brand that is entangled in both the history of fashion and the processes that guide its current state. This complexity is what makes Bode stand out in a crowd of brands with shallow stories and themes behind them.
As the brand has pointed out on numerous occasions, it is re-purposing fabrics that were historically made by women but— like many of their other accomplishments— were eventually lost and forgotten in the depths of time. Emily Bode is not only a woman designing clothing for men. She is also a designer that is trying to bring light to the women of the past who have had a hand in the making of clothes. Her brand is attempting to honor the handy work of female textile workers who have been overlooked and left out of the canon of fashion in favor of male fashion designers like Christian Dior.
The way this idea is interwoven with the look of the collection is why I love the brand so much. Bode is making beautiful pieces that tell a story, but without being in your face about it. The ideas are a part of the design, but are not the only aspect of the clothes that make them desirable. The ideas stand for themselves, as do the garments. This is in contrast with a lot of luxury and streetwear brands that have defaulted to making hoodies and t-shirts that spoon-feed a message to the customer. It dumbs down the message in favor of profit and clout, which in turn de-legitimizes an otherwise legitimate statement.
Sustainability is another way in which Bode demonstrates intelligence and attention with its approach. By relying on vintage fabrics, Bode can minimize waste that comes with most creation of clothes. While the brand does, admittedly, create fabrics for certain products, its core supply is created through the manipulation and up-cycling of textiles already existing in the world. Bode makes this practice a core characteristic of the brand, rather than using it as a marketing ploy as has become the recent trend among brands. The eco-friendly, socially conscious nature of the brand is only one aspect of the brand’s identity. Sustainability is not its focus; it is only a by-product of the story the brand is attempting to tell. Nowhere on Bode’s website does the brand describe itself as “sustainable.” There is no section dedicated to manipulating customer support because of its reuse of fabrics. Rather, the importance of re-purposing to the brand is made obvious through each item displayed.
Everything about Bode points to genuine interest of the designer and deliberate steps taken to flesh out the world within which the pieces exist. The authentic messaging and ideas of the brand are what makes it so appealing to those who look deeper than fast-fashion, and it warms my heart knowing there are still designers out there who care about the clothes they make and the narrative they tell through their work.