Proenza Schouler Autumn Winter 2023 collection shown in New York.

Hard to believe, but it’s been 20 years since Proenza Schouler’s Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez bounded out of Parsons with their good looks, boyish charm and inventive cuts.

Much has happened since then. They’ve weathered commercial ups and downs (good looks and boyish charm fully intact); numerous creative phases (artisanal; digitally inspired) a long-running print preoccupation, and a several seasons-long Paris show-time residency. Along the way, the “Proenza Boys” have grown up, as has their customer. 

Today, McCollough and Hernandez are fully focused on her. Their informal, ongoing case-study group: their friends, now career women, partners and mothers with busy, complicated lives. Observing and listening to those women ultimately led the designers to approach this collection differently than with their typical process, which had always started with sketching out full looks. This time around, they designed wardrobe pieces, “with no preconceived idea of how it’s supposed to go together,” McCollough said backstage. “We thought about, “What does she need?” 

Which gave this no-concept collection the ultimate concept: clothes that work. To stress that point, McCollough and Hernandez commissioned material for their soundtrack. Novelist Ottessa Moshfega wrote a series of pretend diary entries for February 11th (the day of their show), in which she wended from deep thoughts to ho-hum daily tasks. Chloë Sevigny, a longtime friend of the designers’, recorded the text (she also opened the show), and Arca wrote the music. If the resulting narration proved a bit heavy-handed, it certainly played to the message of real, high-function clothes for hectic lifestyles. 

For starters, that meant a baseline of versatility – clothes that can integrate easily into an existing wardrobe and be worn again and again. Read: Almost no prints, the only exceptions coming in linings on alluring dresses with fluid, slit skirts, the patterns visible only when walking. (The designers made similar use of pompom fringe creating a flirtatious peek-a-boo.) Otherwise, the primary message was tailoring, with a precision and proportions that bordered on deliberate severity. Jackets had sloped shoulders and sometimes, vertical zippers in back for a touch of provocation. The jackets topped crisp white shirts and trousers or straight skirts. 

Though McCollough and Hernandez have moved away from the most editorial elements of their codes, they continue to draw on what works. For example, their signature tie-dyes, interpreted in a pair of graceful velvet shirtdresses. Nor did they shy away from flourish completely, offering a series of micro-paillette evening looks. And they made a major statement with bags – big bags. So much for the “I only carry my phone and my AmEx” schtick. The Proenza woman has a lot going on, and stuff to schlep, so why not give her some chic, pragmatic options? In fact, chic pragmatism was the whole point here. Which made for a savvy start to the next 20 years.