Jarel Zhang SS24

"And now I see what I serene. The very pulse of the machine. A being breathing thoughtful breath, a traveler between life and death."

... Before we get into that, I want to go back to the mid-90s. It was July in Paris and I was the typical 90s teen; unchaperoned, untracked and without a phone in Paris for a whole summer. There will never be a time in the future where this experience will ever be duplicated. I was at Parsons Paris where we had European Costume History classes in the mornings at the Louvre. Our professor lectured in front of floor to ceiling windows with a view of the ferris wheel. Then we would break for lunch hop on the metro and head across town to the design studio for hours of live model sketching, sans A/C. When I walked into the Jarel Zhang show, all of those memories came flooding back all at once. This experience felt personal, it felt like I was going back into one of the fondest memories of my youth.

For SS24 Jarel Zhang was inspired from the episode, "The Very Pulse of the Machine" of the animated series, "Love, Death, Robots". Upon my arrival at the venue, mistakenly through the side door might I had, I had the chance to preview all of the sketches that were on a board. Remnants of the previous presentations that have been running earlier that day. About 15 minutes later and after a wonderfully refreshing glass of champagne, the models were called to assemble backstage and everybody took their places. The artists in front of their easels with fresh paper and charcoal in hand. The attendees lined up all around the room. There was a feeling of anticipation. Models came through one by one, making a full circle around the room and took their final positions in the middle of the room on cloth draped blocks. Each piece of this fashion puzzle struck a pose until the final collection was revealed in its entirety with the last model in place. The artists began to draw, illustrating their own interpretations of the collection that was presented.

Zhang was inspired by the link between the human and the machine. The dynamic between a human and a machine is questioned with a specific quote from the moment that Kivelson asks I.O.," If you are a machine, what is your purpose, your original intent?" To which I.O. responds, "To know you." The designer at this point asks, "What is understanding?" and says that the feeling of understanding is sudden and exhilarating as if the body is returning to its original source like electricity flowing through your heart. This concept of the presentation comprising of 16 talented artists from across the world to capture their insights and interpretations of this collection was to exhibit perceptions from diverse creative minds and bring the multiple understandings of this collection together.