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Subrina’s Note: Writing in the last three months has been challenging for me, but the news from Palestine has derailed any energy I have left to write about clothes these days. I am finding the balance in pushing through and honoring the immense global grief for Palestine. I hold everyone grieving Palestine and other things today as I continue hoping, dreaming, and thinking of a better world. Here is my small offering this week without any help from my editor.
At the start of the year, Tahirah Hairston set fashion spaces ablaze with this article about the demise of Kerby Jean Rymond’s fashion brand, Pyer Moss. Some people had never heard of Pyer Moss, and others who had been diehard fanatics expressed shock but couldn’t hide their appetite for the gossip. The rest insisted we were “tearing down Black men.” I, on the other hand, observed how very little accountability there was for those who enabled this promising designer’s abuse and misuse of funds with unwavering support and without oversight. Most people foaming chiming in were those who unquestionably supported and sat front row at his shows until his demise.
I blamed everyone who supported Jean Raymond even after it became clear we were dealing with an “Emperor’s New Clothes” situation before he disappeared from the public in 2022. Investors who threw money at the brand without mentorship were also to blame. The media pushed him so high and convinced everyone of the Emperor’s New Clothes even though careful criticism is what sustains and preserves promising new fashion designers. Until The Cut’s article, very few uttered criticisms of Jean Raymond’s management of Pyer Moss.
While fashion brands like Ferragamo, Bottega Venetta, and Tory Burch are having a renaissance with consecutively stellar collections, some emerging designers like Christopher John Rogers, Hanifa, and more recently, Peter Do at Helmut Lang, struggle to create anything inspired.