Meet Colleen Allen, the designer who is enchanting New York Fashion Week

Colleen Allen, a former menswear designer, recalls with humor her initial reluctance to design womenswear. “When I was working at The Row, they asked me to design womenswear, and I said, ‘No, I don’t want to do that!’ I was very rigid. I felt like everything had already been said for womenswear and there was still a lot to be said for menswear. But eventually, I had this urge. I realized there were ideas I wanted to explore.”

Those ideas — identity, spirituality, community — culminated in February with the 28-year-old designer’s New York Fashion Week debut, an imaginatively and tenderly crafted exploration of femininity rooted in that oft-maligned archetype: the witch. It was while researching how witches have been portrayed over the centuries, she says, that “something clicked with me.”

Allen, who now lives in Brooklyn, grew up in the Chicago suburbs. Her quilter grandmother taught her to sew, and weekend illustration and dressmaking classes (including with Creatures of the Wind’s Shane Gabier) gave her the foundation she needed to become a serious fashion designer. She arrived at Parsons School of Design in 2014, but headed to Central Saint Martins in London for what was supposed to be a junior year abroad. She loved the school so much that she persuaded the administration to let her stay. Allen credits the schools’ combination of approaches—a rigorous technical training at Parsons and a studio format that emphasizes research and collaboration at Saint Martins—with giving her a solid foundation in design and production.

Three years at The Row allowed her to hone her skills. When she began to think about women’s fashion, she quit her job, took on a few freelance design assignments, and began to transform her mental catalogue of images and thoughts into a coherent statement. An online lecture by art historian Susan Aberth led her to the tarot deck of surrealist artist Leonora Carrington, an English beauty who, in 1937, horrified her strict family by eloping to France with painter and sculptor Max Ernst, who was not only married but also 26 years her senior. Brightly coloured and gleaming with silver and gold leaf, Carrington’s cards, first created in 1955, depict a fertile, irrepressible feminine energy: her empress has Medusa’s hair and is pregnant; her hanged man and the devil have androgynous features. Carrington based her imagery partly on the practice of witchcraft in Mexico, where she spent most of her life, and on the 19th-century secret society, the Order of the Golden Dawn, from which Wicca draws inspiration.

Allen’s interpretation of the witch is less esoteric and more immediately relevant: an independent, empowered woman. That translates into clothes that reject the bourgeois stereotypes that have plagued fashion recently. There are ruffled pants, which sound fun but aren’t. The collection’s standout piece is a loosely fitted jacket that resembles an intricately stitched Victorian bodice. It fastens with silver hooks and eyes, a nod to a designer whose work Allen admires: Claire McCardell, who loved the subversive appeal of visible accessories. The ruffled shorts are cotton, while the jacket is fleece, a fabric that McCardell, who was a trendsetter and died in 1958, would surely have embraced. This latest piece draws inspiration from fairy-tale witch outfits—call it Salem chic—and a trip to the Scottish Highlands, where Allen was struck by the disparity between the landscape’s ancient, epic grandeur and her 21st-century hiking gear. Pair the jacket and shorts together, and you’ve got a rebel costume that’s both practical and distinctive—and, as Allen puts it, gives you “a warm feeling, like there’s a ritual presence as you go about your daily activities.”

Less specifically witchy-inspired are the orange velvet cape that falls in deep pleats from the shoulder and the magenta wool jersey top that wraps around the torso. Both pieces, however, tie into Allen’s interest in religious rituals. Orange is associated with spiritual awareness; think of the robes of Buddhist and Hindu monks. Allen came up with the top after observing young mothers with their babies held close at a Shinto shrine in Japan. “Being held that way, in a spiritual place, was really powerful,” she says. “Plus, I like to have a more personal relationship with my clothes than just when I put something on.”

But it’s the witch character that drives this collection, and Allen thinks it’s time to celebrate her power. In Jungian psychology, the witch represents the shadow self, the appetites and instincts we prefer not to acknowledge: rage, sadness, greed, loneliness. It’s a grand concept, but at its best, fashion takes inarticulate ideas and gives them physical expression. “What you wear has a transformative power,” Allen says. “I wanted to access this version of myself—the witch—embody it, and then create that space for other women.” For a designer who once thought she had nothing to say about womenswear, it’s the start of a provocative conversation.

Hair by Junya Nakashima for Oribe at Streeters; Makeup by Marco Castro AMAZONICOIL at Born Artists; Models: Ayak Veronica at New York Models, JoAni Johnson at The 11:14 Agency, MJ Herrera at One Management, Serena Wilson at The Society Management, Sylke Golding at Muse Model Management; Casting by DM Casting; Casting Assistants: Brandon Contreras, Evagria Sergeeva; Produced by Photobomb Productions; Senior Creative Producer: Kevin Warner; Project Manager: Nick Lambrakis; Photo Assistants: Mark Jayson Quines, Ashley McLean; Fashion Assistant: Celeste Roh; Hair Assistants: Christine Moore, Vincent Tobias; Makeup Assistants: Shoko Kodama, Arias Roybal; Tailor: Lindsay Wright; Special Thanks to NYC Park Isham Park and Bruce’s Garden.