Lucky Jewel SS24 - Show Recap
Shopping is a feeling. This is the mission statement for Lucky Jewel, a clothing brand and retail platform by Shay Gallagher, Olive Woodward, and Lola Dement Meyers. Each Lucky Jewel endeavor is equal parts art installation and shopping experience—born out of Chicago in 2018, the brand first hit the New York scene with I Love This Place and I Love This world, a group show that audiences could actually shop. Since showing a formal runway presentation for NYFW SS23, Lucky Jewel lives in Two Bridges (that kinda made up area in LES where yuppie children move so they can have proximity to Dimes) in store/exhibition space-format: showing the work of over 50 artists and designers alongside their own line.
Brand details aside, let’s talk about SS24, entitled New Outfit. This season is directly based on the nuance of getting dressed, the desire and drive to make, encapsulating a sense of lost purity while allowing the multiplicities of the self, versions old and new, to dance with one another. My overall feelings are that this show is an 8/10 by association, and a 7.1/10 without. I have separate ratings because I know Shay and Lola personally, and obviously project a bit onto the brand because of that. I also got a front row seat likely because of my connection as well as magazine affiliation, + the fact that I also am pals with the lovely Lindsey Okubo of Gia Kuan Consulting, who also sent the lovely press email I am quoting from. Speaking of, here's a great photo Matt took of me seated:
Alright I’m going to structure each review with + and – as to why I came up with each number. Keep in mind, at the end of the day my number associations are 100% arbitrary and no math goes into them—shopping is a feeling for Lucky Jewel, arithmetic is a feeling for MK. Ok.
8/10 by Association
+: Overall, I gave an 8/10 because everything was put together impeccably. I also thought the atmosphere of the St. Marks Church in-the-Bowery was awesome, because there was no AC. Really put us in a place as audience members. Three girls and one assistant doing a 26 look collection with accessories is insane. The accessories themselves went incredibly hard; the elaborate hair accessories and jangly metal keys were real good. There was all this really cool silver leather sticky thing on a models décolleté that looked like fashion KT tape? Fierce.
photos by Matthew Weinberger
–: The silk draped dressed were a bit meh I feel compared to some of the other looks, and them shoes were...yeah. the LJ girls didn't make the shoes (Jeffrey Campbell did, I might do a essay on them one day cus I find their business model fascinating), but I think it was a brand deal kind of gone wrong?
Some Context for my negs: I must remind audiences that “filler looks” don’t exist because the designers are lazy, they exist because it’s the only realistic way for the vision of the overall collection to feel wearable: the more stand out look-looks are made to effuse, the fillers (silk draped dresses in this case) are meant to diffuse. Two things saved those dresses for me: one, those effing hair accessories, and the fact that the print is actually a scan of a foam dress printed on the silk is a really genius, very true to the brand, and a great way for a contemporary brand to be meta without insisting upon itself.
7.1/10 by myself
+: As I said, those accessories were hot. These two looks are my favorite very selfishly because I will never stop wearing drop crotch pants despite the fact that they make me look really fat (that’s why I like them tbh) and I’ve been a proponent of high fashion metallics since 2021.
photos by Matthew Weinberger
–: I really did not like the way that a couple of those drape dresses fit, you guys. And the fact that they had to be saved (imo) by the accessories is a bit of a miss for me. I also firmly believe that the shoe choice was off. Mad respect for securing a brand to lend from (we don’t know details of the partnership) but: I know Olive has made shoes, and a couple of those + thrift flats/pointed toe heels could have made a big difference, methinks.
photos by Michelle Corvino
Overall, Lucky Jewel is one of my favorite younger brands to show because the fashion perspective expands into an artistic understanding of place and object, as well as an acute awareness of how object occupies place. This is something a lot of younger designers do not really know how to negotiate in their clothes as well as their branding—Lucky Jewel is consistent, and more than that, it is imaginative. I still want that marbled canvas set they made two seasons ago, that sentiment alone speaks to how this particular season measures power and potency in relation to value and vibe. I am staying lucky, so should you!