ASHER_LEVINE

Asher is based in Florida, United States. He studied at Pace University.

Stage.118, Asher Levine’s fourth collection for Spring/Summer 2012 to be shown at New York Fashion Week, taps into the socio-political zeitgeist, as it centers on the theme of a spreading epidemic in a city-society much like our own. The plague, unable to be contained, soon affects exponentially until forced militarization of society becomes the last stand to combat the infection and its growth. This scenario in the strictest interpretation is not of a time detached from our own, which becomes a gateway to an alternate reality where Levine can play.
The world that Levine conceptualizes provides a fertile ground for his imagination to run wild and his designs to take shape. This collection, grounded in very real influences and inspirations, is most approachable-to-date and yet, retains Levine’s wondrously weird aesthetic, which he has become known for. The defining factor evident this season is the designer’s evolution and maturity both in his artistry and clothing sensibility.
Levine, a boy out of Port Charlotte, FL arrived in New York (not too long ago) to complete a degree in Managerial Entrepreneurship at Pace University, understanding that fashion, just like any other industry, is fundamentally a business. Shortly after graduating and with little over a decade of design experience, he started his eponymous label out of his basement in the West Village. It wasn’t long before his luridly edgy menswear designs took root in the community.
Consistent with his previous collections, his work wrecks havoc with the theme of organicism in fashion. The work, often heavily influenced by the natural world, not only flirts with the ideas of the visceral, but also, takes an explorative stance on the human figure and its condition. His seductive designs are in a constant state of flux between: fluidity and rigidity; beauty and disfigurement; abstraction and form; darkness and lightness.
As a result, his clothes often spectacularly engineered are just that, a spectacle, which in many ways have led him to attain both a cult-like underground following and a strong celebrity clientele with the likes of: Lady GaGa, The Black Eyed Peas, Bruno Mars, and the Scissor Sisters, just to name a few. However, it is this commercial line, originally dreamed about by a 10-year old boy, that is becoming the star and not merely due to his clientele.