Wiederhoeft treats a fashion show as a piece of theatre, which is exactly what its founder was trained to do. Jackson Wiederhoeft won Women's Designer of the Year at Parsons in 2016, spent three years on women's runway collections at Thom Browne, and launched the label in October 2019 with a ten-look story ballet called Spooky Couture. The press calls them the high priest of corsets made in New York, and the corsetry is genuinely the reason.
Wiederhoeft
Fashion as live performance
Wiederhoeft's first industry job was interning on an off-Broadway show that Thom Browne was costuming, and the lesson stuck. The brand's presentations still sit somewhere between a runway and a stage production, which is why they are among the most anticipated slots at New York Fashion Week.
Corsetry as engineering
The signature corsets are architectural and size-inclusive, developed out of a bridal collection sewn by hand in the designer's apartment during 2020. Bridal is often dismissed as lowbrow, and it is what funded the house.
Skirts with a stage history
Tutus, pointe shoes and story ballets are the brand's founding imagery, and the skirts still carry that. The romance is intentional and the construction underneath it is not remotely whimsical.
Dresses for an entrance
Rihanna, Lady Gaga and Sabrina Carpenter have all worn the house. These are clothes designed with an audience in the room.
Our honest take
Theatrical brands usually struggle to sell anything. Wiederhoeft has been steadily converting spectacle into ready-to-wear without sanding off what made it interesting, which is the hardest trick in this part of the industry.
