It’s pretty unusual for a jewelry designer to land a spot on the New York Fashion Week calendar, and so when Presley Oldham, a CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist this year, came upon a slot, he decided to go the extra mile and make some clothes to add to his collection. “It was… an insane idea,” said Oldham backstage after his salon-style show at The Standard’s Boom, “but it was important for me to create the whole world of my brand. Jewelry can be so delicate, and while there are definitely some showstopper pieces in the collection, I really wanted to create a canvas for the jewelry to live on and speak from.”
Photo: Hunter Abrams / Courtesy of Presley Oldham
Photo: Hunter Abrams / Courtesy of Presley Oldham
Photo: Hunter Abrams / Courtesy of Presley Oldham
And showstoppers there were. As it usually goes chez Oldham, fashion was a family affair. This time around the designer recontextualized a variety of intricate beaded flowers made by his grandmother, Linda Oldham, to create a series of styles, including two bralettes and a top, the latter worn by the Oh, Mary! playwright Cole Escola. “She made like 90% of the beaded flowers in this collection,” said Oldham of Linda, an artist, who would bead them as individual strings of flowers that Oldham took apart and reconstructed to create his blossoming separates. “It was a way for me to honor her prolificness and to grieve her,” the designer said, “it was a surprisingly emotional process for me.” Oldham made the flowers through the course of her life: “She started in the ’70s, I think, she would sit at the movie theater and just bead. Everyone in our family would get a bouquet of beaded flowers for Christmas, so we all have a ton of them.”
Elsewhere, Oldham expanded on his signature use of glass beads and pearls, many of which came in unconventional shapes, colors, and sizes. He worked with Murano glass makers and tapped the artist Frank Traynor to create pearl and shell solder work for spectacular towering headpieces, and worked with artisans in India—the same ones his uncle, the ’90s wunderkind Todd Oldham, would work with during his own fashion career. Oldham also broadened his range to introduce a fine jewelry line using Swarovski crystals, sapphires, and classic pieces made in solid gold.
“My brand is all about connection, and I wanted this to look beautiful, elegant, and sexy,” said Oldham of the combination between his jewelry and its accompanying clothes. “The clothes are wrinkled, lived-in, I wanted them to feel like something you threw on or spent the day at the beach in.” He made shorts and cover-ups with luscious silks he’s been collecting for years, and knitted thongs and tops to amp up the sex appeal of his already sultry jewels.
Oldham has created a community around his work. Not only did he cast his friends, including Escola and the actor Brandon Flynn, to walk his show, but he tasked his uncle and grandfather with painting a backdrop for the space and had a room full of fashionable guests including designers Christopher John Rogers, Hillary Taymour of Collina Strada, Connor McKnight, and Henry Zankov, the later of whom he partnered with last season to create jewelry for his collection.
Right before his presentation started, Oldham found out that he had been nominated for a CFDA Award for Emerging Designer of the Year—another rare feat for a jewelry designer. “I can’t fucking believe it, this year has been crazy, but I’m just grateful for the opportunity to create at this scale,” he said. Oldham here has a real opportunity to harness his well-earned fashion clout and friendships to make himself the go-to NYFW jewelry companion. There is a world in which he creates jewelry not just for his label but to accompany others’ if he so chooses. It’s the kind of playful, exciting fashion partnership that happened organically back when his uncle’s work was on the runways. Oldham showed this week that has the talent, drive, and network to bring that back.