Brandon Maxwell Focuses on Enjoying the Design Process, Instead of Controlling It

The Citizen

1 year ago

“I started with a very different collection than what ended up on the runway,” designer Brandon Maxwell told Fashionista ahead of his Spring 2025 show. “I think my approach was really, really different this time.” The resulting collection reflects the beauty of letting go.

“Within a brand that has been very controlled in terms of silhouette and very streamlined… I’ve tried to keep it very consistent. I think that just age and life, but also the last year has really showed me in no uncertain terms that there’s nothing I can control,” he explained. “Even with some things that have happened this year in my family and life and things as I’ve spoken about, there was also beauty in that too that I maybe wouldn’t have otherwise seen had I tried to so tightly control it.”

The resulting proposal is a balancing act of being composed and carefree. The lines are still clean, the craftsmanship impeccable and the proportions considered. But then there’s the popped collars, décolletage-baring henley tops, unbuttoned cuffs and twill dresses layered atop chiffon slips.

“I really went into the last couple of weeks of this collection with a sense of ‘you know what, ultimately it’s going to be whatever it’s going to be anyways.’ I need to enjoy the process of it,” Maxwell said

In recent seasons, the designer has let his creative process be guided by a deeply personal narrative. This time around, while he acknowledges “the things that have shaped [him] on the journey while [he] was making this,” he shies away from an autobiographical approach and centers the focus on the clothes.

If there’s an ethos to describe the collection, it’d be “American ease.”

“[The collection] is a new proposition for our customer,” Maxwell explained. “I think that there is a lightness and comfort to it. And for me, the process of it was just about moving forward — just needing to move forward.”

“What’s interesting about the process of making clothes is that you come down to this one day and you have to contextualize it in a couple of sentences and it’s so hard in those couple sentences or a show note or six minutes to encompass all that came before it,” he continued. “I hope people will feel from the collection that I was able to move through that with grace.”

See every look from Brandon Maxwell Spring 2025 below.

Brandon Maxwell Spring 2025. Photo: Launchmetrics Spotlight

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Source: Fashionista.com

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