Vintage Fabrics & Family Attics Inspire Bode's Dreamy Spring '18 Collection

Unlike the horror movie-ready depths of a basement, an attic is representative of history. Boxes and family treasures are stacked skyward under wood beams and and covered in a layer of dust until, one day, they’re rediscovered. It’s within this maze of creaky baseboards and antique heirlooms that designer Emily Bode found inspiration for Bode’s spring ’18 collection.

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After showing her first presentation in February—an inspired reimagining of a former family home in Cape Cod—the 28-year-old designer brought a bit of the attic to NYFWM. For her latest presentation, Bode took cues from memories of her uncle’s attic, or le grenier in French. She’d slept in the space in the south of France as a child and honored the memory with a beautiful collection that was as gorgeous as it was fleeting thanks to a commitment to buying vintage fabric dug out of antique stores.

Inside Skylight Clarkson Square’s Platform 2, models lounged on beds and rickety old chairs—they occasionally held vintage tape recorders up to their ear or, on occasion, stripped off a layer or two to lay shirtless in bed. It was a lackadaisical approach that provided a relieving change of pace from the oft-overhyped runway collections whose stories behind their garments end up lost in translation.

As the storied influence of her uncle’s attic set the mood, the fabrics brought a richness that captured the room. Workboy jackets, raincoats, wide-leg pants, and boxy shirts were reimagined and emitted a dreamlike quality thanks to a selection of vintage fabrics that were heavy on patterned florals and stripes. Within this whirlwind of repurposed material, the crowded room found comfort during the madness of fashion week. Reimagine your childhood memories and keep clicking for Bode’s spring ’18 lookbook.