Scene: PH5 Fall Winter ’23 collection at New York Fashion Week. Designed by Zoe Champion and Wei Lin. The New York based label presentation was titled This Is Not a Jellyfish which imagines life in a plastic filled ocean. Inspired by the idea of a post-apocalyptic life under water addressing climate change. Garments were made with over 90% recycled materials, like viscose and see-through plastics.
80 percent of the ocean remains undiscovered. The environmentally conscious brand imagines what humans might wear when life on earth is no longer tenable and we’re forced to live underwater. “Welcome to PH5’s underwater world. We went deeper underwater, into a world where plastic can be mistaken for otherworldly life forms and a place that we have barely explored is being impacted by us so greatly. We asked ourselves if we had to move to the deep ocean, could we create a new home out of the trash we’ve put down there?”
PH5 co-founder and designer Wei Lin said “the showcase was inspired by her experience as an avid scuba diver, after noticing an unfamiliar figure in the water in one of her dives. I saw what I thought was a white giant mammal floating in the middle of the ocean.” When getting closer she realized it was plastic.
For this presentation they asked their friends and family to collect plastic from their lives for them to use and gave them a second life as crochet bags. Transforming plastic waste.
The models moved with the currents of the ocean while floating their arms. They became alluring sea creatures.
Talent for the show: Hair by lead hairstylist Carly Loura and team for Cutler Salons with products by Redken. The key hair look was a center part with two buns which were worn outside of the veils covering the hair and the face. Lead makeup artist Molly Marie Ganster and team for New York Academy of Makeup. Alluring vibrant eyes showing through the veils with a natural look using NYMUA Cosmetic Pigments in floro, pop, and coyella. Stylists Coke Ho, Shoes Hoka, Photos Fred J. DeVito.

Special thanks to Helen Oppenheim, hair historian,  archivist, and blogger, for asking me to collaborate during Fashion Week.