On Friday night, Area creative director Nicolas Aburn put the party on stage.

While celebration wear has been a core of the brand since its inception, Aburn said for his sophomore fall collection he was interested in focusing on “layering other ideas on top of it. Last season I started with the word ‘fun,’ and this season the word was magic — another positive emotion.” 

Another big word was “glamour,” “which also used to be a word that meant ‘magic,’ as in a spell. There’s a lot of history in that if a woman was using the way she looked, controlling the way she looked to get power, it was witchy. So I did want to bring in that idea of the power of glamour; the power of using the way you look for agency,” he continued.

Aburn deliberately wanted his high-low mix of clothes to take up space. At times, a bit too much. But denim jackets with giant belts that twisted into bows or exaggerated rugby sweaters with elongated hems thrown over the shoulder — “like Cinderella’s mice draping things around her,” he quipped — offered his playful wearability. 

He added the show had personal touches, like vintage silk scarves tacked into cheeky colorful sets that recalled his younger years of making foulard dresses for his sister, and a navy hoodie, his uniform, tied and wrapped into a great dress. 

And of course there was ‘80s glamour, with experimental cocktail shakers and crafty gowns with “ostrich” feathers crafted from vintage T-shirts, ruches and ruffles made of magnetic tape from eBay cassette tapes, or gold ribbons and gilded jewels that floated between two layers of balled up tulle. 

Can these one-of-a-kind types of looks be scaled beyond runway, editorial and celebrity dressing? Time will tell, but his backward ruffled lamé party dresses, little backwards polos, miniskirts and fun Pop Art sequined separates will certainly bring big smiles and a little wardrobe magic to a wider audience.