EXCLUSIVE: Dress to Express With NOAH FW23
NOAH's Fall/Winter 2023 collection is, on its surface, simply another excellent collection of cold-weather clothes, the perfect balance of sophistication with the street cues that've fascinated founder Brendon Babenzien since NOAH debuted decades ago.
Scratch the surface, though, and behold the thoughtful inspirations that Babenzien's team infused into NOAH's expansive FW23 offering.
Like, it doesn't take a deep understanding of Babenzien's thought process to immediately grasp the appeal of shirts cut from Fox Brothers' blanket wool, quilted shackets made in collaboration with Lavenham, and brushed Shetland sweaters — you immediately just know that this is the good stuff.
Once you dig a little deeper into the influences that shaped NOAH FW23, it only puts it all in clearer perspective.
"While attempting to write an explanation for the inspiration for NOAH’s Fall/Winter 2023 collection, I remembered two quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson," Babenzien said. "'To be great is to be misunderstood,' and 'To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.'
"I didn’t realize it before, but I’ve been trying to honor the individuals in my life that have inspired me by being themselves. Most of all, the ‘as of yet’ unknown individuals in every town and city across the globe, who don't quite fit in today, but we all know are really just ahead of the rest of us. Thank you to all of the outcasts and pirates."
You can thus read the cultural significance from NOAH's gem-like pink wool coaches jackets and corduroy shorts: here are the uniforms of the post-punks, the new wave, the ska pioneers, all threaded together with nautical expression. The looking glasses and bottled ships that appear throughout the lookbook aren't literal stylistic touchpoints but instead indicative of attitude.
NOAH's FW23 references include The Cure, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and the late Sinead O'Connor, musicians whose personal politics informed their pioneering creative output.
NOAH FW23 isn't about dressing to impress but dressing to express, in the same way that these folks clothed themselves with purpose and were innately stylish as a result. NOAH's FW23 clothes are a product of personality.
And, of course, you can expect that NOAH will spend the FW23 season dropping its typical plethora of collaborative shoes, clothes, accessories, all that jazz. Pirate jazz.
