Listen To The Runway Soundtracks From Our Favorite Designers' NY Fashion Week Shows

Le1f catwalking for Ekhaus Latta, Cam'ron caping. In case it wasn't aggressively clear before: the presence of Cam'ron, Le1f, and Corin Roddick of Purity Ring on various runways this week prove that music and fashion are (and always will be) intrinsically linked.

Though a rapper rocking Eckhaus Latta—as Le1f did—is an interesting symbiosis among artists, the soundtracks used by each designer are what really catch both my ears and eyes. Like any theatrical performance, the music of a runway show can make or break the mood, and simultaneously add layers to the artistic message getting shared with the on-lookers crammed into Milk Studios.

In the past, we've seen rad collaborations between M.I.A. and Kenzo, Thom Yorke for Rag & Bone, and even Thee Oh Sees for Saint Laurent (honestly, so fucking rad). Noisey got in touch with a few of our favorite designers from New York Fashion Week to see which designers really have taste across the spectrum of art.

Some labels blew our minds all over our faces (like Telfar commissioning Ryan Trecartin to make individual tracks for each model), while others showcased new tunes by media favorites, such as Assembly New York teasing music from Nicolas Jaar's upcoming (and still not formally announced) album.

From NativeDanger:

"We showed our collection by allowing select members to visit us in the studio while we were shooting our look book video. Music was playing continually through out the shoot. Among the songs playing the highlights were "Obedear" by Purity Ring. Our look book video will feature a custom track by Corin Roddick of Purity Ring who also modeled in the shoot/presentation.

Our design process largely originates with a synesthetic response to the music we love, so it was important to play the specific tracks that inspired the collection."

From TELFAR's creative director Babak Radboy:

"We used unreleased tracks from artist Ryan Trecartin. We asked if he had any tracks and he sent 200! Every model in the show got their own theme music and we also recorded them saying "Telfar" and played that when they hit the end of the runway."

From TELFAR designer Telfar Clemens:

"We picked songs based on the models attitude, and how we thought the outfit each model was wearing would sound. Lizzie Fitch & Ryan Trecartin's music uses alot of unexpected changes and sounds that could be related to TV commercials, but somewhat more advanced in the composition of sounds and mixtures of genres in each song.

I think this represents the future of music, somewhat genre less and specific to how it is applied, so pairing it with the collection created a fresh feeling to the show. We used a diffrent track for each model there where 34 tracks used."

From Eckhaus Latta:

"The show opened with an audio recording of Christine Breese, meditation instructor and writer, discussing self worth. Christine teaches at The University of Metaphysical Sciences and has constructed a beautiful channel of spiritual guidance on YouTube. The Eckhaus Latta team had heard another recording of her in a recent mix I had made, so she was a jumping point for creating the shows sound / narrative. The song moves into "One + Two + Three Fifths (1-3)" by Charlemagne Palestine.

We chose to close with a remix of Moby's "In My Heart", and to lift up, elated from the traversing of emotional territory.

In collaborating with the designers, we talked about the domestic and emotional character of the collection, and how congruently strength and sensitivity are at hand, and a willingness to heal, to move forward. I love artist Susan Ploetz quote "Soft is not weak" which, for me, conveys so much of what I felt in this presentation."

From ØDD:

"All of our music every season is actually live-mixed and developed for each collection by our incredible audio engineer, Adriano Clemente. We don't use tracks, and this season we actually incorporated rings that communicated with our mixer and Adriano controlled what sounds the models made by moving their hands. A lot of press has labeled our use of the rings as "alien gang signs."

From Adriano Clemente:

"My work with ØDD goes from live shows to the video permanent installation at the NYC store, to original soundtracks for the brand's fashion films directed by Jason Akira Somma. I also work for a music school called Dubspot in Meatpacking. The above are not real-time recordings, but they try to recreate the sound environment of the runway."

From Assembly New York:

"The music was all new unheard tracks from Nico's upcoming album. He had let me preview the unreleased album and we sat down together with the clothes and talked about intentions and atmosphere. Separately, we were literally naming our next projects under the same moniker of "Cabal" without haven spoken about it…crazy mindmeld.

I selected tracks that had a storyline and textures, it was important to me that there be moments of confusion and uncertainty in the mix, as the collections was based on the night and darkness is often uncertain."

From Degen:

"I had a custom track made for the collection called "(KNITTING) Odyssey, Obviously" by Ary Warnaar. Ary is in the band Anamanaguchi which specializes in music made from hacking old NES systems. I wanted a rhythm heavy ambient track with a Mario Party vibe and that sounded like a space knitting odyssey- thats what Ary delivered."

From Katie Gallagher:

"Spell's "Rosemary's Baby Theme" has an ethereal, haunted sound which reminded me of exactly what I was looking for to create an atmosphere for people walking around in an abandoned amusement park. I love Rose McDowall's voice and her singing a lullaby sounded like a perfect fit for the initial walk. We closed the show with quite the opposite, techno, which made the atmosphere move into a more traditional runway setting, upbeat and a strong finish."

Zach is Noisey Style's FAVORITE. Follow him on Twitter - @zachsokol.