Fashion Report - Fall/Winter 13 Collection by HARBISON X Jewelry By Heath Wagöner NY

Thursday, April 4, 2013 at the C24 Gallery in Chelsea marked the debut presentation of The HARBISON COLLECTION, by Charles Harbison. 

Guided by the principle that dressing is an opportunity to present your most intimate and intricate self to the world, Charles Elliott Harbison has created HARBISON, a collection of clothing as layered as you are.

With an education in the arts and the sciences (North Carolina State University, Parsons The New School for Design), and a career that spans illustration, textile design, accessories, menswear, and luxury womenswear (Jack Spade, Michael Kors, Luca Luca, Billy Reid), Charles has diffused the duality and complexity he loves into a collection of luxury womenswear.

HARBISON is designed for the woman who embraces her femininity…and her masculinity. It speaks to sexual vulnerability and strength, to the hard and the soft within each of us—a balance of contradictions. The peony is the definitive icon of the collection, a blossom at once fragile and substantial, historically representative of everything from love and compassion to the nobility of a warrior. HARBISON seeks to serve the woman—and man—who sees beauty through the lens of androgyny, modernity, and luxury…

CHARLES HARBISON

SPORT·BAUHAUS·SMITH·MAPPLETHORPE

"FW13 was birthed from the complexity of my interests: from the intimate connection and trans gender beauty exhibited by Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe to the modernist signatures of the Bauhaus and my love of American sport and sportswear," says the designer on his collection's inspiration.

"We were as Hansel and Gretel and we ventured out into the black forest of the world… No one could speak for these two young people nor tell with any truth their days and nights together." – Just Kids by Patti Smith

A wonderful addition to last Thursday's presentation was the inclusion of jewelry by my good friend Heath, creator of Heath Wagöner NY. Heath's jewelry is a melange of bespoke tailoring and urban street style and complements the "hard and soft" that Charles Harbison was reaching towards with this collection. 

Here are some of my snapshots (courtesy of my Android) from the evening:

The designer himself

Check out the bracelet 

Heath Wagöner