story by Dana Varon
photos by Ned and Aya Rosen
You can see the full show in our Photo Gallery.
Looking at Lindsay Degen’s thesis designs from the fine art textiles program at RISD can make one wonder what her more serious line would look like. Luckily her professional debut lingerie collection, Degen, is not too austere.
In fact, she “set out to have fun and make people laugh,” along with the more serious issue of, “tackling cultural anxiety about the body.”
Lounge-y little separates with a sense of humor showed how she does that. They are both childlike and sexy, featuring nestling knitting and cutouts in all the right places, demurely showing just enough. She even portrayed it on her person with her own multi-colored knit shorts, with their own “cheeky” circular cutouts.
“Different girls wearing different textures and knits,” was important to her in this, posolutely apparent with her range of models in their various cuts, colors, patterns, and meticulously mismatched socks, as well as the furniture they perched on. Along with her concept for the collection there are other ideals in play, such as making the show interactive with people she collaborated with. She did this with said furnishings, jewelry and wovens paired with her pieces alternately, and offering the audience involvement with knitting and hair wrap booths. This show was previewed to the press quite a bit, and she is already working on the her next collection, a ready to wear line for Fall 2012. I hope it is comfy and whimsical like this one. Sweaters, please!
