Pyer Moss Announces Plans For a Drive-In New York Fashion Week Event

Pyer Moss Spring 2020

NEW YORK — The future of New York Fashion Week, events, awards, red carpet appearances and other runway shows, at least as we know it, seems increasingly uncertain.

Due to the worldwide spread of the coronavirus also known as COVID-19, fashion weeks around the globe have moved to digital-only format, starting with the men’s shows that were scheduled to kick off next month in Milan, Paris, and London. Whether this trend will continue into the fall remains unclear. Last month, DM Fashion Book reported that Saint Laurent will not show at Paris Fashion Week, will set its own schedule (see it here). It’s  likely that others will follow suit.

With his recent announcement, Kerby Jean-Raymond of Pyer Moss is proposing an alternative to a virtual experience that is primed for age of social-distancing: a drive-in fashion happening. Set to take place during New York Fashion Week this September, the event will play host to a premiere of American, Also, a feature film documenting the two years leading up to the boundary-pushing Pyer Moss spectacular that took place last September at Kings Theatre in Flatbush, Brooklyn. A trailer for the forthcoming film was uploaded to the designer’s personal Instagram account earlier this month. In it, behind-the-scene footage from the show at the historic New York landmark is spliced with archival clips of the neighborhood as the designer narrates. “So many of us, when we get opportunities and huge platforms, the first thing we do is leave,” says Jean-Raymond over a soundtrack of choral music. “Slowly but surely, I’ve been finding my way back… now we’re finally home.”

The New York premiere will be followed by a series of drive-in screenings in multiple cities across the country, exact details for which are to be released later this summer. Though Jean-Raymond is not planning to show a new collection, there will be a drop of clothing to coincide with the event. As with previous Pyer Moss events, the guestlist will be a combination of invited press and friends of the brand, with a percentage of tickets available to the public.

“It’s always been our mission to show the amount of thinking and laboring that goes behind putting together a collection—we’ve been slowing down the speed of how much we produce and improving the quality of what we produce throughout the years,” said Jean-Raymond via email. “This film aims to show the love and care our entire company puts into every single moment we create and will show that we appreciate fashion as an art form and communication tool that we’ve used to embolden a community around us.”

Pyer Moss Spring 2020

Photos Credit: Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com