Maison at Yale: Roccoco meets punk the catwalk

by MIKE CHAIKEN

CTFashionMag.com

At Maison at Yale’s annual fashion show, fashion designer Jenny Mars Chen brought the upper class and the working class together for a meeting of stylish minds in her collection.

Prior to the show held at Tsai City at Yale University’s New Haven campus, Chen explained, “I wanted to play around with the fusion of fashion styles from the Rococo era and punk subculture, I was really interested by how similar yet different these two eras were.”

Chen said, “Roccoco arose as a retaliation against the rigidness of the rural era, while punk culture was sort of a rebellion against the commodification of rock music. I found it interesting how well these two were both rebelling against something… Politically, their ideals were very different. The Rococo era, this fancy, more decorated fashion style, it was a sign of wealth and a sign of class; while punk is very anti establishment, and anti capitalist.

The designer said, “I thought it would be interesting to see what it would what would happen if I took elements from punk fashion, like the plaid and the leather in the studs and make it into more of a Rococo sort of silhouette.”

PHOTOS by MIKE CHAIKEN