Designer Raun LaRose Takes Us Back to the Future

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Designer Raun LaRose Takes Us Back to the Future

At the menswear designer's recent NYFW: Men's show, his retro-futuristic clothes made a profound statement about technology's past and present.

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.

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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.

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