Who Decides War SS25 Reimagines Victorian-Era Fashion
Marking designers Ev Bravado and Téla D’Amore’s 10th collection, the monumental showcase included eye-flocking textile transformations, rich collaborations with Pelle Pelle and Jordan Brand, and a live music mix from Cash Cobain.
At Hall Des Lumieres (the landmarked former Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank) on Saturday afternoon, Ev Bravado and Téla D’Amore’s Who Decides War hit a milestone. The fresh New York City label, founded in 2018 and known for its transformational denim, unveiled its monumental 10th collection, a fashion manifesto inspired by Victorian stylephiles, for Spring/Summer 2025.
Under columnar projections across the venue’s sprawling regal walls and soundtracked by a mix of Ye, Alicia Keys, Stephanie Mills and Jamiroquai courtesy of Cash Cobain and student musicians from Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, the spectacle cleverly mixed experimental modernity and reliable classicism under one roof.
“Our focus is on various elements of fundamental 19th-century fabrications and utilizing humble textiles that have now become heritage Americana fabrics,” the designers wrote in their show notes. Those materials include cotton, linen, terry, denim, leather, and lace — all deconstructed, recontextualized, ripped, shredded, restored, and made fantastical in Bravado and D’Amore’s bid to reinvigorate Queen Victoria’s bygone, polished fashion tropes through the lens of the Black Americana experience.
The one word the designers used to describe the showcase was “opulence;” it’s a rather fitting term for the line’s maximalist interpretations of the aforementioned textiles. Cotton shirts were cut with hourglass shapes to expose the torse on men’s looks, and the same fabric was crinkled on dresses to create a mirage of wetness on feminine dresses.
Leather belts were reformatted as gowns; denim was coated with shine, completely torn up and effectively layered in Who Decides War’s classic manner, while delicate durag veils and sheer linen tastefully left the skin underneath on display. Bomber jackets, made in collaboration with Pelle Pelle, were crafted with intricate, logo-laden pattern work, and a soon-to-be-released partnership with Jordan Brand was quietly teased on foot.
Model Alton Mason, who opened the show in thick, creme knitwear, joined Bravado and D’Amore for a final lap around the runway, before VIPs and press rushed backstage for an up-close look at the collection. There, Lola Brooks told Hypebeast she was eyeing those harmonic belt dresses, while Cleotrapa had her eyes on the brand’s red gowns and matrimonial veils. In the latter musician’s words, “Who Decides War never, ever, ever disappoints.”
See Who Decides War’s Spring/Summer 2025 collection in the gallery above, and take a look backstage with photographer Sarah Schecker below.
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