Subject Eye

Diggin’ Degen!

I met with the charming Lindsay Degen late last week. It was a couple of days before her first full ready-to-wear presentation was to take place. As we had a talk about everything under the sun I realized that, considering she was in preparation for her fashion show, she was rather calm. When asked about not having pre first collection jitters, she stated that “the show will be great and everything is under control”.

And it was. The Lindsay Degen F/W ’12 knitwear collection ASK TELL was held in the West Village on Wednesday, and the tone was set as models took the stage to the sound of the New York Dolls’ Personality Crisis.

One of the knitwear looks: Degen F/W '12. Makeup by Jessica Berndt for Lime Crime.

Lindsay (who studied at RISD and is a graduate of Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London) decided to call her collection Ask Tell as a celebration of the repeal of the Clinton-era military policy of Don’t ask, Don’t tell. She was inspired by imagery from the military, particularly the WWI Modernist artists that developed the patterns used for what we now recognize as camouflage. Lindsay used elements from these patterns to create multi-textural knit designs.

This season, Degen was a collaborative effort with a group of artisans, including a photographer, architect, milliner (Mischa Lampert), potter, jeweler, and cobbler (that’s right, there are knitted shoes!) Lindsay wanted to make sure this collaboration was fun, so she and her united team created something that combined a love of the DIY aesthetic with the coherence and execution of an established brand.