The accessories designer embraced the world of performance art this season.
Brooklyn icon and jewelry and handbag designer extraordinaire Alexis Bittar showed his latest collection at New York Fashion Week for the first time with a performance art piece at Performance Space New York.
After a wait on the streets of the East Village, intensified by the February cold, a chic crowd of guests in their Fashion Week best was taken up an elevator to a hallway with a tasteful photo op with the brand’s logo, and, at the other end, a dark space with a stage where the performance looped for three hours. The collection was displayed in front of the stage in glass cases, for guests to admire, walk around, and experience the art, jewelry, and handbags. Select guests were also wearing the collection and Alexis Bittar team members wore all-black outfits with pieces from the brand, adding a level of IRL approachability to the experience rare for Fashion Week shows; runway shows can often do the opposite and make the designs seem unapproachable, unwearable, and more appropriate for fantasies than for day-to-day life.
The performance was a choreographed loop where a woman sits at her vanity in her underwear, looking into “not a mirror, but a portal.” Five other performers, zipped up in sheer, tan-colored latex suits from head to toe, act as “humanoid AI attendants,” moving robotically around the woman and performing domestic chores. At her vanity, the woman finds everything she needs to become a specific version of herself: jewelry, of course; a fabulous handbag; orange bottles of prescription medication; and makeup. A crackling soundtrack boomed as the performers repeated their mechanical, rigid choreography, featuring cicadas, a TV ad with a woman’s voice describing makeup products, and eerie static. The set, which blended the aesthetic of the ‘80s and ‘90s with an “imagined future in 2050,” helped create an intimate bubble, where guests watched as the woman grasped at societal expectations of beauty.
The FW25 pieces are poetic and alluring. In Bittar’s style, sculptural pieces that play with shape and texture push the boundaries of what we understand as jewelry, like a pair of earrings with giant, clear, liquid pendants linked together by small golden pieces resembling sections of a backbone. A red handbag with golden hardware shaped like sewing scissors had a retro air. A bangle with one edge formed like a lying lioness carried an edgy mysticism. Seeing the pieces on selected guests and performers ablated the icy cold sensation of the glass cases and made the collection come alive.
The choice to showcase the collection against symbolism-laden performance art gave the pieces an air of mystique. The person who wears Alexis Bittar is perhaps trying to free themselves from the social confinements of what is deemed “appropriate” for someone of a specific gender or age. Bittar had plenty to say and gave his collection the chance to do so, through art straight out of the Uncanny Valley. The collection holds weight on its own, but the message landed firmly through the presentation, directed by the designer himself.
Everything about this presentation was thoughtful and meticulous. Showing at Performance Space NY was not a thoughtless logistical choice either. This venue prides itself on “propelling cultural, theoretical, and political discourse forward” for the “last 40 years,” and is a cornerstone of queer culture. It became a “haven” for queer and radical voices during the AIDS epidemic, and it carries forward this history and legacy.
Influencers, however, don’t seem to know the etiquette of enjoying performance art. I found the photo op near the entrance a tasteful indicator of what would be appropriate inside the room — enjoying the art, perhaps photographing the jewelry — but this didn’t stop anyone from standing in front of the stage and taking photos. Someone had placed their belongings over one of the glass cases, covering up the collection. While fashion week is filled with passionate people and moments of genuine connection, many of us seem to only be interested in being seen, rather than doing the seeing. 🌀 7.6
Laura Rocha-Rueda is a Colombian fashion and fiction writer based in Brooklyn who holds a Creative Writing MFA from The New School. She is your local Swiftie and will gladly chat about anything glittery and soft, and about why dismissing pop culture as frivolous is misguided and sad.