Skingraft
This season, designer Jonny Cota took an unlikely urban-youth turn for the creation of his Skingraft collection. “I kept being inspired by the idea of Japanese Gothic hip-hop. What would that look like?” Cota said.
The collection took inspiration from hooded storytellers ranging from Buddhist monks to hip-hop lyricists finding a balance between the new age and the past. “I was listening to a lot of contemporary rap and pop music that I don’t usually have on rotation,” he said. “It was fun and it was enjoyable, and I thought this collection is going to reflect that,” he explained.
Skingraft has always had a hooded-druid feeling, but Cota took more of a lighthearted approach this time, adding streetwear inspiration to the mix.
For the runway presentation at Style Fashion Week LA on March 14, models wore bandanas and walked the runway wearing hooded jackets on their heads to reflect the urban aesthetic. The palette was made up of the brand’s signature black and muted brown and gray, and silhouettes were taken from hip-hop kids on the street. Big, oversize hoodies and belted leather jackets were layered with baggy shorts, leggings and sneakers, styled through the Skingraft filter.
Cota added plenty of understated basics to complement the collection, such as thin Modal shirts and tank tops and cotton pants to help balance out the structured leather garments. He also continued to move in a luxe direction, incorporating high-end fabrics, including the brand’s signature leather, silk and sequins. Woven dresses had leather panels, a knitted wool cardigan had leather sleeves, and shearling collars were applied to leather jackets. Details were subtly dramatic, such as the goat hair that trimmed gloves—each shaped by hand—and leather-covered studs that created a monochromatic texture on a biker jacket.
This season, Cota brought back some of the brand’s former Victorian inspiration, incorporating corsetry details in updated shapes such as a python jacket with a lace-up back. For the finale, Cota paired a Mongolian lamb-trimmed jacket with an avant-garde pleated silk skirt evoking images of a monk trekking through the snowy Himalayas.
The Fall presentation marked the return of Skingraft to the runway after a short hiatus and a welcome opportunity to present the collection as a unified vision. “I was so torn about doing another L.A. runway show,” Cota said. “And I’m so glad I did. To be able to express the whole collection in 10 minutes and to pair the music with it and the lighting and the makeup and to create that fantasy for people, it was so fulfilling, and it feels like the perfect way to punctuate and express the collection.”—N. Jayne Seward
