Review: Doily decals, graffitied luggage and nods to ‘Cabaret’ kicked off 237 Fashion Month with flounce

Last Saturday, Cedar Rapids’ 237 Collective kicked off Ephemeral, the first show of 237 Fashion Month, to a sold-out crowd of over 100 fashion appreciators in every vibe you could imagine — Bushwick babes rubbing shoulders with suited men with piratical earrings, Gaultier-adjacent bodysuits next to off-duty vampires. Seven local designers shared their visions in the main room of the Cherry Building.

Hanna Mostly was the first designer to send her upcycled buttondown shirt creations down the runway. One might think that the results of such a specific material might be a bit staid, but the variation of looks was impressive — American Girl doll-esque dresses, a bloomer-tank top set in blue and white and a spectacular final dress with four stacked tiers of hooped skirt on top of one another that felt like a Candyland character brought to life.

Jenna B’s collection started with a model in a doily-festooned jean skirt sweeping down the aisles, handing out apples to the audience. Blue and white dominated the looks, with lacy edges and decals straight from a grandma’s pillow, paired with stenciled crosses and slogans across the backs. Several silhouettes were blocky and shapeless, an ironic contrast to the delicacy of the motifs.

Spike Dupree sent a wash of early-2010s characters down the runway, reminiscent of Demna Gvasalia’s recent turn at Gucci. Suits, sweatshirts and briefcases were awash with Dupree’s specialty patchwork collages, carefully balanced chaos married by a carefully considered color palette.

“I used my collage style of paintings that I usually do, and wanted to translate that onto the clothes,” he told me afterwards. Of particular note were Dupree’s customized briefcases, purses and other customized luggage: “I wanted it to look less how luggage is supposed to look, and more like if you were to cut out a wall with graffiti on it, and put it on a piece of luggage,” he said.

CAL’s collection felt like a blend of ’60s sci-fi and band merch grittiness. Sheer pants swished around models’ legs as they sauntered down the aisles, their loose flow offset by light bolero tops and tie details.

Metal Ashes was, true to its name, a tour through metal aesthetics. A favorite was a spike-laden black dress with “IMMIGRANTS BELONG IN IOWA” in metal text painted across the front, set off by a leopard-print top. Other highlights were the designer herself in a leather bralette and asymmetrical tiger-print skirt and a velvet skirt with chain detailing.

After Sadya’s excellent Warning Signs collection last year, he followed it up here with a smaller group of sports logo-ed sweatshirts chopped and mixed into slouchy asymmetrical aprons and shirts, with occasional exciting details like a sleeve freakified by several slices of other sleeves or a T-shirt with a ring of red strips around the base like Roman pteruges.

Cherry Glass closed out the show with one of the more exciting selections I’ve seen so far in Corridor fashion; a Galliano/Westwood-inspired collection of characters from a 1930s Berlin cabaret, faces made up into mime-like foppishness. The silhouettes felt unique and characterful from the first piece — a pair of flouncy white pants with a cummerbund blending into a gigantic bow/train down the back. As the collection continued, not unlike the musical Cabaret, influences of militaria and violence crept in. Separated padded shoulders on one suit jabbed out like spines, and on the final outfit, a drab brown weathered suede jacket, a glistening red funnel neck felt like a strangling hand.

237 Fashion Month will include two more shows, Dishonorable Discharge, a solo show featuring Basement Collective on April 11 at the Eastern Iowa Arts Academy, and Edify on April 18, a group show featuring nine more designers at Groundswell.