Cos conquers Brooklyn with a silent drama

They say you only get one chance to make a first impression, and Cos and his designer Karin Gustafsson accomplished that feat at their Brooklyn debut at lunchtime on Tuesday.

Guests were ferried from Manhattan to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, a sunny cruise on a blustery final morning of major shows at New York Fashion Week.

Based in London, Cos is the most expensive brand in the H&M fashion conglomerate and the only one based outside of Sweden. This was evident in every look in this collection, which lacked the simplicity of Scandinavian fashion and was full of big-city sophistication.

Gustafsson was inspired by Tina Bausch, who visited her work and took the choreographer's ideas of movement and fluidity and incorporated them into the materials.

Karin cut with soft volumes, so the clothes looked one or two sizes larger, but her draping was so good that everything looked refined and even noble as a result.

A round silhouette that “somehow collapses onto the body,” he explained in a post-show talk inside the Agger Fish building, a splendidly run-down warehouse on the East River.

Executed entirely in a single colour, without prints, but sculpted with style, from the charcoal cashmere blend capes/coats to the black silk dresses with asymmetric hems.

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In a co-ed show, Karen showed daring, airy funeral coats, tunics paired with wide pleated trousers and a deconstructed suit in matte sapphire blue that was the ultimate New York outfit.

When asked to suggest Cos’s DNA, he replied: “I think we always look for timelessness, but also for the person wearing them to look quite carefree.”

Cos is a silhouette-focused brand designed to make customers look stylish and fashionable without having to mortgage their apartment to make a purchase. She looked very much at home in Brooklyn, more so than at a previous show at the Manhattan Classic Car Club.

“A discreet, thoughtful and calm drama,” Gustafsson concluded in his Viking accent.

All in all, an excellent Brooklyn debut, although the decision to build a whole series of brown walls inside the warehouse meant that most of the time the cast was on the catwalk they couldn't be seen. Aside from this absurd production decision, it was a resounding success, enhanced by the show's dramatic orchestral music.