Designer Raun LaRose Takes Us Back to the Future

Designer Raun LaRose has regularly been cited as a rising star in American fashion. The native New Yorker was even named the “future of menswear” by Vogue Italia last year. His recent presentation at New York Fashion Week: Men’s more than lived up to that hype.

LaRose‘s spring/summer 2018 collection, System Down, featured everything from corporate power suits to more casual garments like bombers and wide-legged trousers. According to information released by the designer, the collection was a reflection on our society’s adoption of technology, the birth of Silicon Valley, and the wealth of Wall Street.

For the collection, LaRose collaborated with Portuguese artist José Cunha on graphics that were modeled after the error messages of old, crashing computers. These aesthetic choices gave the collection a vibe that was both familiar and a little science fiction.

“System Down was a reference to how I feel about our current state in fashion and mainstream society as a whole,” LaRose explained to VICE over email. “As technology progresses, the more and more we as a people disconnect. I wanted to trace back to when the start of the tech wave began in the 80s. With the combination of fashion becoming such a consumerist market and creativity or expression being a by-factor, I found it important to express my feelings toward that by just creating what I wanted versus what the system tells us to.”

Our photographer Jimmy Tagliaferri was on the scene during NYFW: Men’s to take photos of Raun LaRose’s System Down spring/summer 2018 presentation. See all his great photos below.

UPDATE: An earlier version of this post featured some photos which were not from Raun LaRose’s recent NYFW: Men’s presentation. They have been removed.

Follow Jimmy Tagliaferri and Clara Morki on Instagram.