Luxury American label Bode decided to do things a little differently this season. Coining its SS26 collection The Expressionist, the offering paid homage to US composer Morris ‘Moose’ Charlap, who was best known for the score to Broadway’s Peter Pan. Staging a presentation in the Théâtre National de l’Opéra‑Comique, onlookers were treated to a rendition of Charlap’s work by his son Bill, before being welcomed to explore the collection, displayed notably on miniature dolls rather than models.
With the name of the collection drawn from a musical that Charlap started before he died, the clothes drew inspiration from its plot. Set against the backdrop of a post-Impressionist Paris, the musical followed the life of a painter. Mirroring some of the composer’s own experiences, from summers as a child in the Poconos to living in New York, the Parisian matter was drawn from Charlap’s lyricist Eddie Lawrence, who studied painting in the French capital earlier in his life. Manifesting in the clothes as references to modernist painting and hints at the vibrant, cultural community of New York during Charlap’s glory days, it was a miniature-sized ode to two of the world’s greatest cities during some of their greatest eras.
Photography courtesy of Bode.
