TELFAR GLOBAL NYFW 2022
Nobody really knew quite what to expect from Telfar TV at fashion week. The details on the invite were characteristically esoteric: Was the designer planning a runway presentation? A movie screening? The location itself—a studio space at the South Street Seaport—remained a mystery disclosed only a few hours before the event. After a relatively subdued week of shows, this seemed poised to be the wow moment we’d all been craving. Surely New York’s most elusive fashion rebel would have a few tricks up his sleeve.
Wrapping your mind around exactly what Telfar TV is isn’t easy, partly because it’s like nothing that’s existed before. Easily the brand’s most ambitious project to date, it launched last September with the help of the Ummah Chroma Collective as an experimental 24-hour linear TV channel or content platform that operates beyond the hyper corporate realm of social media. “When we started this project it really came from a deeper need to connect with our community," said Telfar Clemens, who was all smiles backstage. “This is the place where we can experiment, where we can talk to people directly without having to censor ourselves, without having to talk through an audience of mainstream media or whiteness. It’s not about how many people are watching it, or how many more bags we can sell, it’s literally about freedom.”
Somewhere between a fashion show, public-access TV, and performance art, last night’s event was a full-on 90 minute immersion into the freewheeling creative world of Telfar; call it Clemens’s answer to Warhol’s infamous Factory. The evening kicked off with a video introducing the key Telfar TV hosts, all longtime friends and collaborators, including artist Aya Brown, model Gitoo Cuchifrito, and singer Ian Isiah who played the cheeky master of ceremonies. User-generated content was peppered throughout the screening, including a clip of an adorable little girl tuning into Telfar TV from her living room. Some of the most comedic moments included a spoof of The Wheel of Fortune. (The viewer who zoomed in for the show exploded with glee after spinning the wheel landed her a brand new chocolate brown shopper).
Clemens and his crew were also seen live chatting with a Telfar fan dressed in a Zentai suit. Shayne Oliver made a cameo too, dressed in his new Anonymous Club merch. Then, just as you thought the live broadcast was going into commercial break, the video screen was swiftly slid aside (cue, more Zentai suits!) to reveal a vast runway set and exactly what we’d all been waiting for: an epic fashion show.
Images courtesy of Telfar Global.