Psychotic Yet Beguiling

Mimi Wade AW20

The blue cropped cardigan with the feathers around the neck and cuffs. This one piece took me all the way back to the mid 90s where streetwear and Lolita-esque style meshed seamlessly in every glossy (or matte pages if you’re an “artsy” publication) magazine and in the streets. Mimi Wade’s AW20 collection gave us the essence of the psychotic yet beguiling Harley Quinn. This beloved DC Comic character has danced the line between funny and really, really psycho for decades. Seeing how this style played out in this timeline was a task handed to Wade and she mastered it.

Inclusivity has been the buzzword in fashion for some time but more and more so in recent years. This collection saw various body types, and not just body types out on the runway for (let’s face it) shock value but real women’s bodies. All of the sizes in between very tall and very petit, svelte and plus. It is the sizes that go typically unnoticed, just ordinary women. Ordinary women wearing unique and curious pieces.

The show starts with an ultra flattering flouncy graphic print cutout dress followed quickly by a sexy/campy Joker and Harley slip dress. The model wears a cat eared winter hat that snaps below the chin. As the collection proceeded a body hugging bell bottom denim jump suit made an appearance as well as Americana themed looks slightly reminiscent of Madonna’s American Pie and the classic cheerleader, pom poms and all. Throughout the collection you get a sense of being let in on a joke. Almost like Harley is saying, “I’m sexy…just kidding I just act like it sometimes.”. At the end of the day, Mimi Wade has proven that a toxic hot mess of a personality like Harley Quinn can be dangerously sexy.