Bach Mai presented his Spring 2024 Collection entitled ‘Atlas Crossing the River Styx”

 Bach Mai presented his Spring 2024 Collection entitled ‘Atlas Crossing the River Styx” his first runway show, set as an homage to his late father, at NYFW after seasons of presentations.

 

 

“My father was like the Greek god Atlas, tasked with holding up the sky. He bore the weight of his world on his shoulders so that those around him could live and thrive. Every challenge he encountered in life he took on with dignity, strength, and a resilience of Odyssean proportions. However, he sought no Homeric epic for himself.” Bach Mai said of his collection, “Coming to America as a refugee, it was his strength, dedication, resilience, and sacrifice that allowed his family to build the lives we have today. My every success in life is because of my father. He always allowed me the freedom to find my own way in life, something his own circumstances did not always allow him to do. It is through his unwavering and unconditional support that I had the strength to reach for the stars. This collection is dedicated to his memory.”Mai used the workwear his father lived his life in, especially cargo pants, as a go to point but it was reimagined. The elongated silhouette of the traditional Vietnamese áo dài is another cornerstone of the collection.Prints were used to demonstrate humanness. The sharpness of a drawn line, the emotion of a brushstroke. “They are artifacts of a gesture, a memory of the hand that made them. The lotus takes center stage which is not only symbolic of Vietnamese culture but also features prominently in the Egyptian Book of the Dead wherein the flower that descends beneath the water every night only to resurrect and bloom every morning with the sun came to represent rebirth. The prints in this collection are all shown with an inversion of themselves to represent the duality of life/afterlife.” Mai said.What I will say is that this wasn’t my favorite collection Mai has presented. I felt like details that were present in previous collections weren’t there. Some of the oversized pieces didn’t feel intentional. This doesn’t make me waiver in my faith of his continually emerging star. He is nominated once again for the CFDA Emerging Designer Award.