ThreeASFOUR Has Good Luck with 13
ThreeASFOUR, the avant-garde downtown label helmed by Gabi Asfour, Angela Donhauser, and Adi Gil, went on a spiritual journey this season, centering their fall/winter 2013 collection around Ophiuchus, the newly discovered 13th astrological sign. The show, which was presented in the form of a Hindu puja ceremony, featured 13 looks—each based on one of the 13 astrological signs, and held on the 13th day of the second month of 2013 at The Hole gallery. “It’s our 13th anniversary as well,” Gil told Interview backstage before the show started.
Needless to say, the number known for its association with bad luck was anything but for threeASFOUR. “It’s 2013, so it feels to me like the year of great hope. And a new kind of era,” explained Asfour. “It feels refreshing, like a reboot, a restart.” The astrological spin made it easy for the designers to create the show’s line-up. “We had the stars tell us, because we followed the flow of the signs,” explained Gil. When show time came, it looked like a piece of performance art. The smell of thick incense filled the air as a piano player provided the music on a baby grand. Ophiuchus, played by the ginger-haired actress India Menuez, led the way, followed by the 12 other zodiac signs (represented by models) that come after it.
“She’s definitely a sophisticated woman, very modern and very spiritual as well,” said Gil of their muse. The looks were highly sculptural—mirrors lined coats while abalone shells accented a frighteningly short black dress—and most, except for an asymmetrical leather and pinstripe jacket and a grey corduroy and wool jacket, seemed more suited for display in a gallery than on a store rack. Such is the nature of threeASFOUR, whose artful clothing has been exhibited in museums from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.