Little wonder that during this show Casablanca’s CEO Fred Lukoff was wreathed in smiles and chair-jacking like he’d been transported to the Sound Factory Bar circa 1993. The brand he operates pulled off a great coup today, partnering with “Little” Louie Vega to premier “Lift Me Up,” a new track that designer Charaf Tajer reported backstage will be released in collaboration with the brand.
Vega stood behind the decks at the end of the American Cathedral’s aisle-runway, framed by a mirrored backdrop and the gospel choir that delivered his vocals with roof-raising oomph. The building was not made for deep bass and the punchy delivery of the ear-trumpet Void Acoustics Air Motions (the high hat was echoing like crazy) but to watch Vega, a master at work, was uplifting indeed.
His involvement framed a collection set around clubbing. Backstage Tajer, who years ago, with Pain O Chokolat operated the Paris club Le Pompon, said the best night out of his life was last season’s closing party at Amnesia in Ibiza. He added: “I’ve been getting into house for a few years now. So basically we wanted to tell a story about house music, but we didn’t know where to start: rock ’n’ roll has its own looks, hip hop has its own looks but house doesn’t so much, you know?”
Part of that is because house started out as an underground art form before ricocheting around the world. But over the decades, house—now a very broad church—has welcomed many typologies of character under its roof. You could spot some of them in Casablanca’s collection today: the DJ booth diva closing look; the ’90s Cream kitten in a knit pink romper; the business-minded geezer with no visible source of income in a many-pocketed parka and bucket hat; the Manumission performer in her tactical harness; the money man in his progressively pocketed black tailoring, and so on.
More broadly Tajer created prints and jacquards inspired by different stages of club flyer aesthetic and presented many versions of his probably strong-selling going-out tracksuit. Vega’s involvement and that clubbing context lent this collection a causal reason to be: that made it one of the most effective Casablanca sessions in recent seasons.