Ulla Johnson
SPRING 2023 READY-TO-WEAR
Ulla Johnson | Spring Summer 2023 | Full Fashion Show in High Definition. (Shorts - Exclusive Video Detailed/1080p - New York Fashion Week) #Ullajohnson #SS23 #NYFW #NotifyMeFashion
"Ulla Johnson has lately been making a tour of New York’s grandest public institutions. Lincoln Center, the New York Public Library, and, for today’s spring 2023 show, the Brooklyn Museum’s Beaux-Arts Court. The message this series of venues sends is that Johnson’s independent American brand has weathered the challenges of the pandemic and come out more confident on the other side. Not all of her peers will be able to say that. The reason why she can is because she knows herself and her customers very well.
Recently her clients have been asking for more occasionwear, so we saw what qualifies as the first-ever Ulla Johnson ball gown on the runway, only she didn’t make it in a predictable silk taffeta or stuffy silk faille, but in a maltinto (or mist-dyed) trench material the color of faded roses, which gave its pouf bodice and bubble-skirt silhouette a laid-back yet still special spirit. “I never want anything to feel like it’s wearing the woman,” and not the other way around, she explained. A shorter trapeze-shaped party dress in the same material in a soft shade of jade was layered over a mesh tank for a similar relaxed vibe.
Colour played a starring role here: see the deeply pigmented purple denim and the sunflower yellow of a “three-piece suit” consisting of a sleeveless jacket, bell bottoms, and a bandeau top. She said Lee Krasner’s unlikely juxtapositions were a starting point. But Johnson’s main preoccupation is and always has been handicrafts. A sweater dress with a loose fringed hem was entirely hand-knit from silk ribbon, and a sleeveless column was hand-crocheted. The striped blanket dress with side cutouts was hand-loomed in Guatemala, while the shibori-dyed numbers were done in Bangalore. “It’s exciting to be able to really start working with the communities that we were having a difficult time accessing over the past few years,” said Johnson. An embroidered denim jacket and jeans were done in Los Angeles with a group that uses antique chain stitch machinery. It pays to do that kind of research; they don’t look like anything else out there right now."
BY: NICOLE PHELPS
