Brandon Maxwell Spring / Summer 2019

NEW YORK — As hermetically closed as the Matrix can sometimes feel, it is not immune from the occasional glitch. Those who are engineering the algorithms of late have betrayed a predilection for red, white, and blue, but mostly just red. Red hats, red states, lots of red faces. Such a climate inevitably fosters disruption, disturbances that at first sight adopt many of the same signifiers, but to far different ends. This much was the case early Saturday evening for the Brandon Maxwell Spring / Summer 2019 runway show. In this love letter to Texas, Maxwell’s native state, the designer unfurled the bunting, bails of hay, parade ground lighting, and a concept car purposely deployed for the occasion. This was no city slicker tribute act either, chest coolers by YETI, which are produced by a firm headquartered in Austin, Texas, punctuated the runway set. It felt like a county fair, a tailgate party, anything but a runway show in the dead of Fashion Week, but this was a slice of home that Maxwell opened his heart to share with invited guests and wider viewing public. Stage set, the collection was all power and beauty in shades of powerful strokes of red, dashes of pink. No nonsense elegance any upstanding woman from Texas could appreciate. On the night Riley Montana closed the show and was preceded on the runway by Aiden Curtiss, Cara Taylor, Grace Elizabeth. Although Marfa, Texas is more than 2000 miles away by car, the small desert city could not have been made to feel any closer