A debriefing on Bode Fall 2024 Ready-To-Wear.
In a fashion world where Quiet and Loud Luxury have been at odds, Emily Adams Bode Aujla’s Bode blooms in neither binary: the designer has created a grounded, rich, and nostalgic island of American luxury. She makes us not yearn for the designer decadence of Paris, but rather, for Grey Gardens, your grandfather’s boarding school in the fall, or an antique library.
Bode has certainly fallen into the mainstream radar of fashion fanatics and received the recognition she deserves (2022 and 2021 CFDA Menswear Designer of the Year and the 2020 and 2019 CFDA Emerging Designer of the Year, to name only 2). The brand breaks away, however, from the trap of mainstream mechanics through its diversity and integrity of vintage-inspired designs. So many hot brands depend upon a label, accessory, or motif to cultivate their cult — Bode makes clothes for people who love style, and who are more interested in the stories that clothes tell than the affluence they represent. (Bode, if anything, conveys a cultural, intellectual affluence.)
The Fall 2024 Ready-to-Wear collection is a new line called Bode Recreation, inspired by American athletic wear from the 1770s through the 1970s, as told to Vogue. A complete collection of menswear and womenswear, the pieces could easily fill a wardrobe for any occasion. One could bundle up in a ski lodge or prance around a monied dinner party in these clothes. This is a collection fit for Jordan Baker; many of the pieces look like what the rich would have worn during playtime in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.
The sportswear influence was at times cheeky and delightfully obvious: a dazzling gold sweater set with tennis player embroidery, a delicate men’s cardigan festooned in a baseball print, or a monogrammed football uniform silhouette. Other pieces relied more subtly and brilliantly on America’s past: naval tailoring indicative of a sailor’s uniform, embroidered 1920s slip dresses, and a chunky pearl necklace paired with a rouge cardigan.
A bright and deep color palette, rich reds star alongside kelly greens and royal blues, to name a few. Outerwear certainly defines lots of the looks (jackets are an item Bode has mastered). Throw on a loud fringe American flag coat if you’re visiting a ranch out west, or reach into your uncle’s closet and grab an oversized black quilted jacket for a brisk walk on Thanksgiving Day.
And where there is the function of outerwear there is also the frivolity of undergarments. Many of the women’s looks shine with the chic sleekness of upscale underpinnings, almost undetectable as lingerie and more like underwear as outerwear for stellar parties. There is, for instance, a three-piece, slinky black short and bra top set, finished with a bedazzled top coat. Stockings worn with ballet pink silk sleeping shorts and a nipple-revealing lace top are a study in vintage femininity, renewed and reimagined, and made fun.
At Bode Recreation’s core is the suggestion of play, leisure, and putting one’s body to good use (for the sake of activity and to also maybe just show off one’s long legs and great taste). There is nothing more fabulous and indicative of a well-rounded, indulgent — American! — life than to have time for sport. We all just want to summer and to winter on America’s coasts, and to do so dressed in Bode. 🌀
Maren Beverly works in the beauty industry in NYC and loves to spend her free time reading, writing (for Haloscope!), vintage shopping, and seeking out cool cocktail bars in Brooklyn.