Bushwick-based fashion designer Kim Mesches is doing the Fashion Week in a very DIY style. For his latest collection, #undertheground, he organized a fashion show on the L train. “I’m very realistic about fashion week and the bigger names that will get the most coverage,” Kim told us about why he opted for this not exactly typical way of presentation.
On February 4th between 3 and 4PM (so that the train wasn’t too crowded), this FIT graduate took a bunch of models and transformed the L train into a guerilla runway show. “We did [it] a week before so we could release the video during fashion week,” told us Kim.
The fashion show took place between Bedford and 1 Ave stops making use of the nice long travel period between Brooklyn and Manhattan just like any good show time would.
“I chose the L train because it has the longest amount of time between stops and it has a really fun creative crowd of Brooklyn and Manhattan riders. I also live off the L and am very familiar with it,” said Kim.
The L train riders made probably for a better Fashion Week audience that the slender cool crowd occupying Lincoln Center these days. Just check out their surprised faces in the video.
“This collection grew out of taking note on society as a whole, and what fashion week has become,” told us Kim about his project #underground. “Everything now is about posting where you’ve been, what you’ve seen, about the “likes” and not really being in the moment and experiencing things. I tried to convey that not only by doing the show on the actual subway but by the designs, they fuse hyper modern tech fabrics with organic natural fibers and draping techniques,” Kim added.
Kim Mesches has been selected by Amazon.com as one of 15 independent designers for their new initiative to support emerging designer’s business.
If you missed the show on the train, be sad indeed. Kim doesn’t plan on repeating it any time soon: “I just wanted to see if I could pull it off too, just to bring something new.”
The #undertheground video was created by Zach Jopling as part of his project Brooklyn Motion, which he created as an effort to break from his daily ad agency work and to collaborate with local artists and entrepreneurs.
So what other crazy things have you seen on the L train lately?