Lupita Nyong’o wears a Jonathan Cohen two-part look at the Mexico City premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The top, a voluminous red silk faille cape, is a black leather suspender dress with a front slit made in collaboration with Evolve by Nature, a biotech company that has removed harsh chemicals from the leather tanning process . The outfits, which represent two of this fall’s collections, were demure in the way Cohen’s previous outings were, but also bolder.
During the preview period, the designer reported that corsets have become a hit at his Madison Avenue boutique he opened last year, and it’s not just young women who appear to be the pieces target audience. Nude styles are the mainstream of fashion at the moment. Cohen cut his Evolved by Nature leather, as well as dark wash denim, embellished with appliqués made from fabric scraps. There was also a leather bustier dress with a mini lampshade skirt.
Cohen has long designed his own prints, which he paints by hand in his studio. The fall collection includes eye and lip motifs he created in watercolor on tissue paper; the print has a playful charm and is a fine example of some of his best work. Other prints feature peonies in various stages of their flowering cycle, from just budding to blooming. On a chartreuse evening gown, the lyrics swirl among bordeaux petals, inviting scrutiny. For a more formal evening gown, the bodice was crafted from bonded cotton with recycled glass beads, and its sweet floral print combined shades of blue, green and purple.
Colorful floral patterns appear on sweaters and sweater dresses, including machine-knit and hand-crocheted varieties. Most intriguingly, he used black-and-white miniature versions of his eye and lip prints for wool bodysuits with asymmetrical necklines and draped backs.
