Remember when people would dress up to go to the airport or the mall instead of the yoga pants trend which has taken over. Todd Thomas, a well-known and established designer can recall at an early age he was obsessed with clothing and fashion especially since his mother made sure the family was dressed and prepared for all occasions. For the Past Present Future collection, Thomas wanted to bring back occasion dressing with the debut of this new ready-to-wear collection at New York Fashion Week that happened from Wednesday, February 5 through Wednesday, February 12.
PAST
Thomas has been part of the New York cultural scene for more than 30 years. Comfortable uptown, downtown and within various milieus, whether its art, fashion or entertainment, it’s his keen observational skills in identifying and highlighting the aesthetic significance within each that has made him the go-to collaborator/consultant for leaders within these various scenes. He has created one of a kind, and iconic, costumes and garments for a multitude of people including Cindy Sherman, Justin Vivian Bond, Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, Debbie Harry and many others.
As master tailor working exclusively with major A-List actors on red carpet appearances and with the upper echelons of fashion creative directors such as Jennifer Lopez, Kanye West, Vera Wang, GQ, Carine Roitfeld, founder of CR Fashion Book. Thomas is taking that precise fashion acumen out from behind the curtain, presenting his own collection to be sold direct to consumer and curated for specialty retail partners.
PRESENT
Past Present Future is celebratory (every day is an occasion), sustainable (limited runs and local production) and a culmination of his many influences—a love of craft, fashion history, classical style and social observations.
Past Present Future combines ready-to-wear with bespoke and offers multiple levels of access in price, silhouette and fabrication – making pieces that are well made, elegant, whimsical and combine concept and functionality.
For Thomas, the present is about offering new levels of access to the experience of the moment. For this debut he collaborated with renowned painter and longtime friend, Belinda Lee, to create custom digital prints based on Lee’s ‘abstract squiggle’ paintings.
These motifs printed on satin twill, spandex and duchess satin provide a vibrant foundation for a collection of an “any season” assortment of item based pieces that combine traditional occasional silhouettes fabricated in nontraditional combinations – wool crepe mixed with aviator nylon, printed spandex and beading.
Past Present Future offers expertly built evening pieces to be mixed and matched for whatever occasions the wearer chooses. It is apparel to treasure.
FUTURE
The future is about new ways of analyzing, making and communicating fashion as well as new ways of framing our identities through fashion. In uncertain times of fashion distribution Past Present Future looks at how we consume fashion with an a la carte approach to the consumers’ participation. With an agenda to make and distribute in new ways – real-time, intimate trunk shows, larger monthly and bi-month offerings.
Past Present Future is about how we wear, participate in and make fashion with the intent to elevate the lives of all of those participating in the process. Past Present Future is about being able to bring fragments of the past into a present too often lacking the sense of new prism with which to illuminate fashion process and system.
A temporal transformation of the future into fragments of past values and present defined by the search for lines and textures that allow differences and distinctions.
To learn more about Todd Thomas please visit: https://www.toddthomasnewyork.com/
