Aaron Potts described his spring 2022 muses as “earthbound angels.” He’s taken the optimism of his fall 2021 collection, which featured sunshine yellow against a palette of grays, and applied a new practicality to his designs. Shapes are as voluminous and wafty as ever—see the horsehair-banded ruffles, yards of fringe, and elegant full skirts—but there is a new slimness layered within the collection.
Potts reports that customers are looking for something just a little closer to the body to move about their re-emergence in. He’s giving them bike shorts with wraparound skirts that attach on the sides, more slender tiered ruffle dresses, and happy madras separates with contrast gingham trimming. Denim is made with tiny holes woven into the fabric to make it less rigid and Potts has used raffia to create beautiful tie-front aprons that nod to weaving traditions in Ethiopia without being too literal. His ability to address multiple ideas so succinctly, from Afro-Americana to Claire McCardell-style practicality, is one of his talents as a designer. No wonder The Met has taken notice; a fall 2021 look appears in “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion.” The emotion assigned to Potts’s look is so right: Warmth.
