A contrast of material – delicate vs. rugged; light vs. dark; sheen vs. matte – is the first of the contrasting elements of the collection which elicit these complexities. Excellently manufactured in the United States (as appropriate to the collection’s inspiration), each look combines supple pale 100% silks with dark-colored fine combed wools that evoke the rough, heavy materials worn by laborers under the WPA. The same male workers inspired the silhouettes of the garments so that they combine masculine and feminine qualities, blurring traditional gendered expectations.
Each garment makes playful reference specifically to one or more of these laborer’s garments: rough heavy trousers, suspenders, overalls, and plain undershirts - and thus plays on the further dichotomy between work vs. play that is often inherent to the mixed professional/personal circumstances of black-tie events in the lives of modern women.
The wearer of the WPA Legacy Collection is a successful, sophisticated modern woman who throws herself vigorously into the life of both work and celebration that befits the modern woman. She is graceful, poised, sensual, bold, and unapologetic in her composition of these feminine and masculine qualities, projecting herself first and foremost as an individual.
She is suited perfectly by these same oppositions inherent to the garments of the WPA Legacy Collection, which are as rooted in modernity and historical relevance as she is.
She emerges from the crowd, radiant.
