Runway: Reese Cooper S/S 21

For Reese Cooper’s Spring/Summer ‘21 collection titled “River Runs Through” he brought his closest friends and collaborators to a forest in Thousand Oaks, California, for an intimate show and video shoot. A brook in the forest served as a watery runway for the models as they strolled through it displaying his latest collection. Funnily enough, Reese Cooper’s original idea (before the pandemic) was to take his collection back to Paris and create an artificial brook on the floors of a Parisian school. His forest show made for a completely new energy for a fashion show and a welcome one. “Everyone there was so close to me; they all know my mom!”

This collection saw Reese Cooper channeling his most genuine collection to date. He enlisted close friend and designer, Juliet Johnstone, to custom paint garments along with a custom-patched Benjamin Edgar “Ghost Tote” made its debut down the runway. He did not stop there as he even enlisted the garments of his own fans and shoppers. Early on in the quarantine, Reese Cooper started his “RCI-DIY” project with the first installment being a chore jacket fans of the brand could purchase, assemble, and customize completely to their liking. For his Spring/Summer ‘21 show, Reese borrowed back a jacket from a shopper and showcased it in the show. These garments combined with Reese Cooper’s personal injection of prints from old nature magazines and scans of flowers he found on hikes through California printed on skirts and bags made for a unique and personal showing.

Reese Cooper has always drawn his silhouettes, shapes, and prints from outdoors wear with cargo pants, hunter orange, and heavy-duty cotton-twill pants reappearing through his collections. Though outdoors garments tend to lack the “fashion week” flair, Reese Cooper has always found a way to construct and style his garments in a way that moves fashion (and his brand) forward.