Something increasingly fascinating about Bode is that, by now, most reading this know what a collection by Emily Adams Bode Aujla looks like. Her design signatures are so clear, and in many cases so proprietary, that she can now comfortably draw outside the lines with the ways in which she presents her work. As she proved this afternoon in Paris, she doesn’t even have to show her clothes at all—fashion shows be damned. Bode Aujla’s return to the Paris this menswear season featured no models, no runway, and no (human-sized) clothes. Instead, it was a one-man show at the Théâtre National de l’Opéra-Comique, and it was delightful.
“I really only do shows when they feel intentional,” she said before today’s matinée, like when she debuted her womenswear collection here a few years back, or when she partnered with GQ to present a collection for Bode Rec. in tandem with Super Bowl weekend. “The whole point of doing things like this is to share what makes me inspired, and to give context,” she added. “That’s why we enjoy opening stores so much, because it allows you to see the worlds in which the clothes live.”
The man in today’s show was Bill Charlap, the Grammy-winning jazz pianist who just so happens to be uncle to Aaron Aujla, Bode Aujla’s husband. Bode Aujla builds her collections around year-long themes or narratives; this was the second chapter dedicated to the life and work of Morris “Moose” Charlap, famed American composer and Bill’s father. The former performed three of his father’s songs today: “Some Summer Day,” from the television special Alice Through the Looking Glass; “I Won’t Grow Up,” from Peter Pan (which drew smiles from even the most serious grown-ups in the crowd); and “Please Let Me Die in Paris,” from Moose’s last, unfinished musical, The Expressionist (he passed at 45-years-old).
The last song, you guessed it, is what brought Bode Aujla and Bill to Paris. That and a key memory of Bill’s that he shared with Bode Aujla: The summer before Moose passed away, he took him and his mother and sister on a trip to Europe. “We went to and stayed at the best places with money we didn’t have,” said Bill, singling out a visit to the Louvre. “I design all of my collections from personal memories and stories,” Bode Aujla said. “When you think about your childhood and what kind of impressions you are left with, it can be the day to day, but it’s also very specific fragments of memories that we play over and over and over again,” she continued. “Paris was one of those for Bill.”
Bode Aujla presented this collection once again on dolls, which she exhibited on a long table outside the performance space. Throughout the lineup appeared references to Moose’s life, from patches reminiscent of those he earned at camp as a boy to a reproduction of a sweater his wife, the singer Sandy Stewart, wore on one of her album covers. As ever, Bode Aujla conjured up a set of pieces that felt as present-day as they did mementos of past lives, which in this case they were.