“For this collection, I want people to take away the “G-word:” growth,” designer Heron Preston said during a preview of his latest men’s and women’s collection. “We’re growing up, we’re learning and getting better at it — getting tighter with the fits and the shape — and how we engage the fans of the brand: the stories we’re telling, the materials we’re including, the newness we’re designing into the pieces.”
For spring, Preston doubled down on his “LED” or “less environmentally destructive” sustainability initiatives and further expanded his “eX-Ray” program (pieces with the highest level of environmental and social verifications, launched last season with new eX-Ray jersey, nylon and cotton styles) with a debut “skittles assortment” of Candiani denim, which implements Coreva, a new biodegradable, plant-based yarn derived from natural rubber, in place of petroleum-based elastic.
Preston also started rolling out new branding and logos, like an “HPNY” graphic seen on a hat.
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“Anchoring Heron Preston in New York City and looking at my brand as the next wave of [New York]-centric brands. I’m putting my stake in the ground as a New York City brand — even though we are global as well, at the end of the day we’re an NYC-based brand, so we’re nailing that over the head with new branding,” he explained, adding that his collections’ inspirations too stem from his immediate surroundings.
“This season I started going to Orchard Street — that was our first field trip for the collection. Reflecting on Orchard Street and how much that meant to me as a college student, moving to New York from San Francisco, and having to adapt to the change in weather and conditions. How do I dress up for these conditions that I’m not used to? Go to Orchard Street — go get your puffer, your snorkel jacket with the fur along the hood, your leathers and shearlings. That’s where all the locals would direct me — what Orchard Street represents for fashion is where I started the research,” he explained, adding riffs on the early ’90s and 2000s era of the city, pop and hip-hop music and culture were equally important to the collection’s meld of elevated style codes with signature workwear elements. “Looking back at those codes and that era of street fashion — or fashion in general — how the high and low met in the middle to create a new look.”
For instance, look one’s money print embroidered jacket paired with a classic workwear pant with contrast stitching, or 15’s pink canvas cropped jacket and miniskirt atop debut women’s strappy underpinnings (an expansion of his men’s underwear program, taken from his learnings while reimagining essentials for Calvin Klein).
There were also riffs on fictional institutions — a Heron Law men’s dress shirt, or Heron State ’90s-inspired basketball shorts and hoodie (complete with the letter 23, a reference to Michael Jordan) — as well as Heron Security jackets, classic workwear elements (carabiner clasps on women’s slip dressing and boxy jackets), moto looks and elevated officewear. Preston dug into these archetypes (both new and signature) while keeping the clothes utterly realistic and wearable — a continual keypoint of his designs, which he calls “instant language.”
“I have these three “R’s” that I use as internal filters and started to talk about in media, which is “relevancy, relatable and revolutionary.” If I feel we’re good at checking off on all of those, that’s when you’ll see things coming out from behind the scenes and being presented to the world,” he added. Spring certainly checked all the boxes, offering a consistent balance of modernity and newness with brand icons and signatures.