Proenza Schouler

The Lazaro Hernandez - Jack McCollough duo, aka Proenza Schouler, fan club membership has been on the rise since 2002. In very little time, they have added their names to the list of prolific and talented partnerships like Dolce & Gabbana and Victor & Rolf.

The artistic duo is an unusual creative format because artists are known to have supersized egos. However, there are some that succeed in forming partnerships and that are productive and quasi-insoluble separate entities. For Hernandez and McCollough, their partnership story started in 1999 at the Parsons School in New York.

Hernandez is from Miami, where he grew up in his mother's beauty salon. He became interested in fashion by watching the comings and goings of the fashionistas in his mother's business; however, since he did not consider fashion as a possible profession, he planned on becoming a doctor.

McCollough is from New Jersey. Despite his infatuation with fashion, he enrolled in the glass-blowing department of the San Francisco Art Institute. In the end, their common passion brought both of them to the Parsons School where they met and quickly became inseparable. They each received prestigious apprenticeships: McCollough at Marc Jacobs and Hernandez at Michael Kors. Hernandez obtained his thanks to an enormous stroke of luck, luck that continues to shine of the duo.

Hernandez found himself at the Miami Airport with his mother when he saw his idol, Anna Wintour, boarding the same plane as himself. His mother, noticing that her son was about to faint, asked him what was happening. When he explained, she asked, "Anna who?" His mother had never heard of Madame Wintour, but told her son, "She's just a person," and pushed him to go and talk to her. Hernandez opted to write her a note telling her about his love for fashion and his admiration for her, and a flight attendant was nice enough to pass the message.

For many, the story may have ended there, but as indicated earlier, Hernandez was a very lucky man. Several weeks later, he received a telephone call from Michael Kors office: "Anna Wintour tells us we should hire you..."

During their last year at Parsons, Hernandez and McCollough realized that they shared an aesthetic that resulted in the same silhouette, color palette, and appreciation of proportions. They received permission to produce their graduation collection together. They chose their mothers' maiden names to name their collection, and Proenza Schouler was born.

Their collection was presented in May. Like the Saint Martins School, the Parsons School graduation collections are observed by the big players in fashion. Proenza Schouler stunned the CFDA director: pencil skirts, structured boleros, all in pastels with a layer of urban modernity. The pieces were so successfully completed that it was hard to believe it was only a graduation collection.

He immediately contacted Julie Gilhart, the director for Barney's and convinced her to take a look at this very promising duo. Gilhart fell instantly in love with the collection, which she found went perfectly with the New York style while giving it a new life. Even though Barney's purchases were finished for the season, she bought the entire collection and ordered the next one for the following spring.

Things took off: they shared a part of the earnings with their respective families and invested the rest in the next collection, which at the moment, although already sold to Barneys, consisted of nothing more than some sketches. Hernandez and McCollough did not know how they were going to manage setting up the whole process from creation to production, but then, they got lucky again: a German investor made it possible for them to establish their label. Soon after, other prestigious points of sale joined the Barney buzz and ordered their collection.

They showed for the first time in 2002 during New York Fashion Week. André Leon Talley said he was touched by their special perception on constructing clothes, and by the importance they gave to cuts, detailing, linings, finish and the line, making for a perfect ensemble... and so the great one blessed the new arrivals.

Carine Roitfeld (editor-in-chief Vogue France), who attended the show, visited them the next day in their loft studio where she tried on the entire collection. In 2003, they received the Perry Ellis Emerging Talent Award. One year after their arrival on the scene, Hernandez and McCollough became the darlings of New York and their wardrobe was regarded as modern refinement, simultaneously urban and minimalist.

Proenza Schouler style hinges on a perfectionist's research into a clean and fundamentally modern silhouette. A look, a structure, geometry and architecture... these are primordial, as are the importance of color, absence of flourishes and the superfluous. In a Proenza Schouler, nothing is taken for granted; each line is scrupulously studied to obtain an ultra contemporary cleanness.

Although they may make references to Courrèges and Paco Rabanne, or take inspiration from Prada, Hernandez and McCollough are nevertheless not into retro or passé. Their approach to fashion is very modern, and each of their interpretations is perfectly tuned. It is not for nothing that the crème de la crème of the New York fashionistas adore them and that Kirsten Dunst and Chloe Sevigny are often seen in their creations.

International recognition for the duo came in 2007: Colette, the Paris concept-store, sold their made-for-Target collection, which was very successful; and Maggie Gyllenhaal wore their neo-glamour midnight bleu dress on the Oscars red carpet.

Proenza Schouler is now famous and desired by everyone, and their topstitched bustier is a must-have for any serious self-respecting fashion addict. We wait impatiently for their spring/summer 2008 opus...