Going to a Rachel Comey show can feel a little like a New York family reunion. Among the editors were gallery owners, professors, artists and other downtown archetypes who have worn her clothes for years; even the collection’s stylist, Harper’s Bazaar editor in chief Samira Nasr, is a longtime Comey collaborator. Look from the audience to the runway and the distinction can become pleasantly blurry. Comey has never needed to invent her woman; she has spent more than two decades observing the ones already around her.
For spring, she found a kindred spirit in Rosalyn Drexler, the singular New Yorker whose résumé included painter, playwright, novelist, nightclub singer, Emmy-winning comedy writer and professional wrestler. Comey mined Drexler’s archive without letting the reference overwhelm the clothes: cracked surfaces migrated onto leather and satin, wrestling championship belts informed coin paillettes, and her bold canvases supplied cobalt, green, lilac and high-contrast color.
More interesting was Drexler’s refusal to be just one thing, echoed in clothes that resisted being assigned an occasion. Comey’s eveningwear was particularly good. A long, vivid green textured column had presence without preciousness; an icy blue dress skimmed the body and fell over flat white shoes. Ruched pink satin came with white socks, knocking some of the sweetness out of it.
That interplay continued in the daywear. An oversize cotton T-shirt could sit above silk; a gray T-shirt and loose shorts were interrupted by an armorlike panel of metallic paillettes. Turquoise shorts edged in shimmer came with an easy cream knit, while oversize tailoring revealed flashes of bright blue underneath. Comey’s women looked dressed, but never overly considered — ready for dinner, the gallery, the subway or a late-night bodega run, enormous bag in hand.
There’s desire in that familiarity. Comey makes good design feel part of daily life rather than something preserved for fashion moments, while leaving enough oddness — a sock, a proportion, an unexpected flash of shine — to keep it from becoming ordinary.
Perhaps that helps explain Comey’s longevity: she doesn’t impose fashion on the women she dresses. She pays attention to how they live, then gives them something more interesting to live in.
