People are celebrating the discovery of the 30 year-old designer Michael Halpern who is selling through at Bergdorf Goodman in his first season. “I’m not really quite sure I’ve seen this happen, straight out of the gate, for a designer who isn’t known,” said Linda Fargo of Bergdorf Goodman. “That is special.” Born and raised in New York, Halpern studied fashion design at Parsons School of Design, before working at J. Mendel and Oscar de la Renta, and later studying at Central Saint Martins in London. His MA collection at Central Saint Martins in 2016 won him the attention of everyone from Donatella Versace (Halpern now consults on Atelier Versace’s couture collections) to US Vogue’s Sarah Mower and Beyoncé. His debut presentation followed in February 2017 – a hot ticket at London fashion week. (Excerpts from Vogue and MatchesFashion.com)
“When the world started going a bit crazy, that’s when I started doing more colour ... I felt like it needed to be there”
Halpern's rose-gold sequin-embellished trousers are the perfect fusion of disco glamour and couture-salon sophistication. Under artificial light at night, his clothes come alive. The collection is now available at Bergdorf Goodman and MatchesFashion.com.
"To be able to put something shiny on, it’s almost like armour"
"I love Bob Mackie, I think he was super revolutionary... The collection is absolutely very niche, you have to have a certain look and mentality to wear it for sure... it has a chintz factor, but it’s meant to be subversive and not so literal. In London, NYC and Los Angeles, I see people wearing the pieces with a vintage concert T-shirt and sneakers – I think that would be great. Or wearing a jumpsuit with a denim jacket over it, that would be cool."
The Halpern Spring/Summer 2018 RTW collection was shown in the London Palladium during London Fashion Week:
Images Sources: Vogue.com and MatchesFashion.com