Fashion Designer Week - Public School

Public School, often described as the perfect blend of high fashion magazine and grunge street style, is made up of the two friends and business partners Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne. Both were born and raised in New York City and their fashion business is run only out of NYC, with their clothing being designed and manufactured from the city including everyone who works for the brand working from NYC as well. Founded in 2008, they blend high and low references from fashion, music and art to create a point of view that is both unique and precisely detailed. They design and manufacture the full range of their collection in New York but they incoporate into their designs fabric from the best Italian, Japanese, and American mills.

In 2005, Chow opened a fashion boutique called 'Arrive in Miami Beach'. In an interview with the New York Times, Chow said, "That's how Public School was formed. I wanted to do a private label for the store. The concept was mixing high and low and creating menswear with the same emotion as womens wear." He brought his former colleague to the project and the label made it's debut in 2007 and outlasted the store.

In 2010, Public School was the sole menswear brand, chosen by the Council of Fashion Designers of America to be part of the inaugural business development program. In June 2013, they were honored with the CFDA Swarovski Award for Menswear and in November of the same year, they were named the winner of the 2013 CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund Award. It was their first nomination and win. During New York Fashion Week in February 2014, Public School introduced the brand's first women's wear to critical acclaim. The collection included a wide range of ready-to-wear outerwear and accessories.

Slowly becoming more and more popular, PS has loyal fans in rapper Kendrick Lamar and singer Mick Jagger.

Kendrick Lamar wearing Public School, 2013

Mick Jagger wearing a Public School bomber

Here are a few of my favorite looks from Public School's Fall 2014 Ready to Wear Collection:

I really love Public School because as mentioned earlier, they are the perfect mix of high fashion and low key street style. Check back tomorrow for my post on Versace.

-Haley xxx