#PerfectDiaries: Amber Later on Matty Bovan’s ’ShapeShifter’ SS23 runway show MFW

27 Sept

One of my favorite narrative experiences is approaching a long work of science fiction or fantasy, reading a brief plot summary, and being sent into a spiral of bewilderment at the incomprehensible place names and lore. Then, through actually reading or engaging with the work, what at first appeared as nonsense accumulates meaning and particularity. At the fitting for Matty Bovan’s spring / summer 23 show in Milan, I was similarly overwhelmed and confused by the maximalist assemblage of patterns, materials, shapes, and colors distinctive of Bovan’s style. My eyes didn’t know where to land or what to trace, and therefore it was hard for me to say with any certainty how the clothing made me feel, or what it reminded me of.

Backstage before the show, I found the designer contemplating the board where a photo of each model in their look was pinned. Casually, he began to walk me through some of his inspirations, which included the dense worldbuilding that is a trademark of the sci-fi/fantasy genres. While he conceded that most designers likely think of their work as some form of worldbuilding, Bovan seemed primarily interested in the way that worldbuilding as a narrative tool shifts focus from the singular individual to the broader whole. Many science fiction stories are less about specific characters or plot developments than developing the sense of a sprawling, intricate world in which infinite scenarios may arise. Rather than following a single thread of action, they encompass an entire network of minor relationships and cultural signifiers. The benefit to making his designs so, at first, confusing for the eye, is that it forces the audience to take in the piece as a whole instead of immediately disassembling it into individual components. Instead of making a collection with a few specific pieces meant to sell, where an audience leaves the show remembering only “that boot” or “that skirt”, the complexity and apparent incongruity of Bovan’s designs finds unity in difference, and cohesion in chaos. It reaffirms the idea of a collection as a wholly unified artistic statement that is more than just the sum of its parts.

Though there were a few accouterments that stood out from the rest, such as the reflective pyramidal headpieces by milliner Stephen Jones, the fun of examining the collection as a whole was to see how different motifs and themes were woven in between different looks and pieces in subtle ways. An apple pattern that appears on one half of a shirt might pop up on the opposite half of another, or the clip art pattern blown up and embroidered into a hip pad on one look might reappear on a shoulder pad elsewhere.

This approach also helps to more accurately reflect Bovan’s real life experiences. As he explained to me, so many different moods, feelings and experiences occur during the long process of developing a collection, that to try and incorporate them all into his work demands that he resists a simple, unified narrative. Life is complicated and, at times, seemingly random, but like Bovan’s designs, the beauty of it is in finding peace with contradictory elements resting side by side.

Amber Later