Fashion | Food & Drink | Arts & Culture | Neville Wisdom | Youth Arts Journalism Initiative
| Neville Wisdom: "This year I’m moving to the beat of my own drum more, tapping into my mind more, trying things even if they don't seem like they're workable.” Lucy Gellman File Photo. |
First he transformed what a New Haven Street could look like when cars were replaced with fashion models. Then he took on a collection that reflected an entire work of architecture. Now, Neville Wisdom is changing it up again—this time with mimosas, hot coffee, and a runway in a restaurant.
Instead of an outdoor spring fashion show this year, Wisdom will be holding two showings of a new collection at the State Street restaurant NOLO this Sunday, designed around the idea of brunch. While it is the second year he has presented a spring show at the restaurant, he said this year’s vibe will be totally different—in part because NOLO is now fully open to the public, and in part because the collection departs from his previous work.
“Doing something a little different is always is always the idea,” he said in a recent interview, chatting as he bounced around his flagship shop in Westville. “This year I’m moving to the beat of my own drum more, tapping into my mind more, trying things even if they don't seem like they're workable.”
The idea was born earlier this year, when he and NW Brand Director and Stylist Lauren Sprague were throwing ideas back and forth for the spring show. Taking a page from drag brunches that have become wildly popular in New Haven and across the country, Sprague suggested brunch. She knew that NOLO owner Derek Bacon, who Wisdom first connected with last year, was also interested in drumming up interest in its brunches.
“It seemed like a really fun different way to present the clothes and do something together,” she said.
| Neville Wisdom Studio/Instagram. |
Now, Wisdom is in the final stages of designing, suits and dresses getting ready to make their big weekend debut. Specifically, he said that this year’s spring collection will be less of a formal collection at all, and more of a free-flowing line of garments, like those he has designed during his “100 Designs in 100 Days” challenges this and last year. He said he made the decision after feeling liberated by the work he made during both challenges, like he was unlocking something in his brain.
“It's the confidence to push the envelope a little bit,” he said. “For years, I've been constantly thinking about other individuals, or even the customer, more than I've been thinking about what I want to make and how that works. I’ve put a little more self-awareness in this collection, and a little more risk. It's gonna be flamboyant.”
For Wisdom, that means channeling the colors and textures he associates with not just Sunday brunch, but Sunday after church in his home country of Jamaica, when bright clothes poured out into view and people were still leaving their houses of worship. After years away from chiffon, he will be working with the fabric again, as well as with linen, raw silk and tweed. He said that brunch-goers can expect to see oranges, greens, bright blues, yellows, pink, and fuchsia among other colors.
He also said that some of the clothes will be inspired by the act of brunching itself—not eggs and bacon, so much as taking a moment to relax and eat before another workweek begins. He said he has grown to see Sunday as “a happy time, the end of the week, where you can sit down and have delicious food”—and he wanted to find a way to communicate that through his designs.
Over at NOLO, the team has been working on a menu that will rise to the occasion. Derek Bacon, who founded the restaurant and opened it late last year, said he is very happy to be working with the designer for the second year in a row.
“We are so excited and honored to be a part of New Haven’s fashion and art community once again!” he wrote in an email last week. “Neville Wisdom’s fashion house has become such a great institution in our hometown, and Sunday Brunch at Nolo is the perfect way to celebrate!”
Wisdom’s fashion brunch is scheduled on Sun., June 2 at 11:30 a.m. and again at 3 p.m. For tickets and more information, visit NOLO’s website or email jet2nolo@gmail.com. Lucy Gellman contributed reporting.
This piece comes to the Arts Paper through the second annual Youth Arts Journalism Initiative (YAJI), a program of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven and the New Haven Free Public Library. Over eight weeks this spring, ten New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) students work with Arts Paper Editor Lucy Gellman and YAJI Program Assistant Melanie Espinal to produce four articles, for each of which they are compensated. Read more about the program here or by checking out the"YAJI" tag.