+ABOUT

New York's fashion epicenter has moved out of Manhattan and into Brooklyn, the intersection of North 7th and Bedford Avenue is the new Seventh Avenue. At the forefront of this transfer of energy across the East River is Abigail Seligsohn, the woman behind Of Substance, which has been featured across the continent toward Japan and across the Atlantic Ocean in Europe.

As the fashion world treads water in the current lack of a substantial fashion trend, Seligsohn, a native of Philadelphia, 2002 graduate of Pratt Institute (after studying photography and graphic design at Carnegie Mellon and York University) and resident of Williamsburg, Brooklyn is filling the fashion abyss with Of Substance, a label which started under the humble condition of Seligsohn's friends requesting that she make them jewelry. In 2003, with a self-confidence that most out-of-work editors could not muster even with all of the red pens in the world, Seligsohn managed to get into the NYLON offices, and they broke Of Substance to the public.

Of Substance's singularity lies in Seligsohn's ability to create a new vision out of the form and ideology of fashion history. While other designers are content to regurgitate trends, Seligsohn draws inspiration from strong women and influential trends to comment on both sides of a taste making personality, Of Substance has the ability to capture moments in history in pieces that are not large enough to weigh down ears.

Known for its geometric personality (perhaps an oxymoron), for its mixing of the modernity of plastic with the tradition of metal, Of Substance takes its cues from Art Deco geometricity and the shape of 80s gutter-cute gestalt — this dynamic of form and content turns Seligsohn's work into historically aware, fashion-forward accessories. Welding punk with tradition, she creates the accessories-equivalent to the gilded hallways of the 57th Street Trump Tower residence, maintaining Fitzgeraldian glamor while keeping a vision more grand than the apartments' views both of Central Park and Fifth Avenue. Keeping her eye on Fifth Avenue and the intersection of this same view-dynamic of organic and synthetic, Of Substance's shocking colors look simultaneously like tropical animals and geometric figures. These bits of colored-plastic scavenged vintage are authentic punk, authentic fashionista: the only thing co-modified is the plastic scavenged from local shops.

"I feel like fashion is the most accessible form of art." With Honey Street, the Fall 2007 collection, Seligsohn is moving from the youth and superficiality of plastic to the sophistication and of urban keystones like sterling silver and gold, and creating pieces that balk at the urbane myth that a look cannot translate from diva to day wear; that a woman cannot show up at the office still wearing what she had put on to wear out dancing the night before. Commanding both sex appeal and self-assuredness, Substance says "lay me" at a party and "I will lay down for no man" at the office.

Seligsohn's dynamics weave together to create an arabesque that is a ballet of balance that would fit in at the opera or a rock concert — that is as much Coco Chanel's slum youth as her post-success society ball life.

As much Chanel as Joan Jett, Debbie Harry and Marianne Faithful, Seligsohn is creating jewelry for the Grrrl Rocker at heart and is taking Chanel's "A fashion that does not reach the streets is not a fashion" literally, Fixation is as indigenous to the street as a speed limit sign, and more indicative of the tempo of New York Cities sidewalks, it is as much Bryant Park every-day-of-the-year as it is Bryant Park during Fashion Week.

A trident of strength, Of Substance includes Transit, Optic and Parameter. In Transit, see the tightness of railway tracks and the sleek patterns of the subway system. In Optic, feel the warmth of ornamental circles inspired by the shapes in a Brooklyn door. In Parameter, hear the city in its mimicry of building grates, like a sketch of the urban landscape, something as connected to your subconscious as the fire escape to your building.

Of Substance's "The Look Back" captures the transubstantiation in viewing fashion in a historical context, Seligsohn has studied the style and philosophy of mod icons and plays off of Mary Quant's Look Back collection. Bold accessory designs are created with each geometric shape corresponding to a historical figure: the circle for Twiggy, the triangle for Peggy Moffitt and the square to Mary Quant. Contrasting colors and monochromatic motifs brings about a series of almost unending combinations.



Written by: Zachary David Palmer
zacharypalmer@gmail.com