After a year break from the runway, Jackson Wiederhoeft returned home to present his striking spring collection salon-style at his Garment District atelier and showroom on Friday night. Blocks away downtown, his designs were simultaneously taking the stage at Little Island’s staging of “Galas,” a new play on the life of Maria Callas starring opera singer Anthony Roth Costanzo.
“Actually, one of the looks was this gown for when Maria Callas is performing ‘Norma,’” Wiederhoeft said of a show-stopping silk taffeta ballgown, here in white but downtown, in red. The designer, who’s been working on spring for a year with fabrications initially purchased for fall, said he created the dress in three days following the play’s rehearsal because he knew his bridal clients would be asking for it.
The gown was but one of his new takes on old-world volumes for spring, also seen in a faded by time yellow-hued double-faced silk satin salon corset with gray rosette montee crystal hand-embroideries and fil coupe silk jacquard draping that matched its large ankle-length ballgown skirt. Elsewhere, Wiederhoeft cut closer to the body with a variety of new fabrications, like a black heavy wool twill double-breasted suit or a lighter stretch viscose shadowy floral dress and silk jersey slip-like number hand-embroidered with gold and silver glass-cut beads, metal paillettes and rose montee crystals.
“A friend once told me, ‘What I love about your shows is I never know what to expect.’ I always think about it,” Wiederhoeft said, flipping from previous seasons’ theatrical performances to an intimate setting shown by fabric grouping. The location is where Wiederhoeft meets with clients and implements their feedback into new designs, including spring’s Venus corset, which she can zip into herself, and two elevated denim looks alongside sinuous corset styles imbued with megawatt craft.
“It’s doing surgery on the grape. It’s not even a jewelry box, it’s a ring box,” he said. The setting allowed showgoers to get up close and personal with his designs — perfect for taking in the intricacies of each elevated look that he continues to excel in.