Stiletto heels and polished sneakers clashed into littered puddles of rainwater as spectators attempted to enter the Who Decides War September show during New York Fashion Week. Founders Ev Bravado and Téla D’Amore’s luxury streetwear collection was underscored by intense rain showers, forcing celebrities like Teyana Taylor, Ice Spice, and Central Cee to press through the mass crowd of attendees with team members carrying two to three umbrellas to protect their photo-worthy outfits. This season's show was held in SoHo on the eleventh floor of a circular room with columns dispersed throughout. Along the perimeters of the runway, were scraps of clothing and sewers sitting at their machines — reminiscent of a tailor shop. The show’s entrance was through a side door that could’ve been mistaken as an exit and up a leisured freight elevator.
Editors and buyers stood along the perimeters of the indignant crowd outside of the building boasting at the security that they too needed to be let inside. Eventually, many of those editors decided to leave the venue entirely. Through the entrance were over 100 people waiting for a singular elevator to take them to the show. More guests waited outside, restlessly clutching to their umbrellas. They pushed, shoved, and rushed through the door wanting to stand inside. It would eventually become a dead end as many attendees sprinted back outside and around the corner to try their luck at the alleged second, secret celebrity entrance. That door was locked too and building security was called after more and more attendees shoved the innocuous show volunteers out of the way, barging into the main lobby of the building. An editor from Essence Magazine attempted to calm the crowd, talking with security about how they could mend the situation.
She yelled at the group: “If everyone gets in a line they’ll let us in.”
Four people began to create a line, but the rest stayed huddled latching onto the door. One man who’d been tugging at the handle consistently shouted at security: “Don’t put your hands on me, bro. You’re going way above your job.”
Witnessing the determined and off-kilter approach of entrance to a runway show meant to celebrate art in all its glory — especially when you take into account the enduring amount of time it takes to produce such a thing — felt morbidly ironic. The chaos at the door that ensued for over an hour has more to do with people wanting to feel important through sitting at these shows; They don’t care about the fashion. They care to say that they were there. If they did respect the former they’d approach the situation differently. Instead, ego and the need for exclusivity barreled through the doors.
Eventually, once it was confirmed the show started — with supermodel Alton Mason opening the runway — people texted their friends, called their Ubers, and trickled away in hopes of catching the next big moment.
Ev Bravado and Téla D’Amore of Who Decides War are focused on building a legacy brand. With the love and support of Ev’s father and uncle (who were both tailors) and their yearning for a future world great enough to hold space for their five-year-old son Judah, the married duo is on a journey to make Who Decides War something that lasts — not just a brand that’s “here today and gone tomorrow.”
“It's daunting being in the position where we're this new, high-profile, young, budding brand,” Bravado tells Teen Vogue. “We know within the next five or 10 years there's going to be someone else that's going to be in our position and we're going to be looked at as like the old heads, but at the same time, it's like, ‘okay, we know we are driven creatively and we have a vision and a story.’ The bell curve doesn’t exist for us, you know?”
A once exclusive and slightly intricate key component on the trek to sartorial immortality is producing a runway show during the Spring/Summer or Fall/Winter seasons. A twenty-minute visual display might not seem urgent in the grand scheme of running a business, but in the fashion industry, it’s one of the many steps in solidifying your brand as one to know. Moreover, it’s the chance to put your designs in front of the right people. Whether that be through buzz-worthy charm that’ll have influencers and journalists talking about it for days to come or through intrinsically subversive, note-worthy clothes that have consumers ready to shop. The main takeaway each season is: Did our marketing work?
“We know we're gonna pay a large amount to put on a show, but the amount of exposure we're going to get off of it is worthwhile,” Bravado says.
Founded in 2018, Who Decides War is a culmination of artistry focused on the Black Americana experience. The brand was named one of 10 finalists for the 2023 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund and is a favorite of rappers, athletes, and A-listers, including the late Virgil Abloh.
Bravado and D’Amore start ideating their September collection in March and sampling pieces alongside their team in May. In the last few years, their team has grown from one person to two, to four, and now eight. They, of course, outsource as fashion month gets closer, but they currently have several in-house sample makers helping them during the design process. This SS24 collection was inspired by Bravado’s years growing up in a tailor shop. D’Amore similarly grew up around tailors and seamstresses. Alongside their in-house designers are the manufacturers and factories they work with. Bravado has been going to the same one in the Garment District for the last ten years. Because of their design style, most of the distressing and patchworking has to be done by their internal team. Of the roughly 30 looks walking down the runway, a majority will have one-week deadlines. Those tend to be the more commercial pieces within the collection. But something like this black suit from the collection took over a month to produce and three rounds of muslin.
“But that one is more of a runway type of vibe,” he adds. “That's not a piece that will really hit commercially. So we essentially just need it to hit it for the vibe of the collection.”
Beyond the daily work of creating the actual clothes to showcase are the many other pieces of the puzzle getting them towards being stage-ready. There are open model castings, which Bravado and D’Amore prefer to do in one day, even if it means sitting through 600 people. Then there’s hair and makeup planning, something the duo both want to have a hand in as well. After that is styling, which up until this past season was done by Bravado and D’Amore. “The biggest misconception people have about our jobs is that we just create,” D’Amore says. “People think that we just get to sit in a room and doodle, having a blast. When you're growing a company, you have to have your ear to every last piece of the foundation that you have built and you have to keep it going.”
If you regularly attend New York Fashion Week or observe through the many different social media platforms, then you’ve probably thought at least once why a specific spiraling room, dark warehouse or stairs-only walk-up would be the perfect place to host a show. Location is everything for a lot of designers and it mainly comes down to two factors for Bravado and D’Amore: budget and vibes.
“We try to mentally place each collection in a setting and then work from there,” D’Amore says. “Do we want it to be intimate? Do we want it to be large-scale? Do we want it outside or inside? We consider all of those things.”
But before the show can start the guestlist must be solidified, or as confirmed as one can be when you’re one of the buzziest streetwear brands currently out. When thinking of their show attendees, Bravado and D’Amore know it’s a layered process. They would love to one day do democratic seating, similar to how Martin Margiela did in 1989. When mentioning this they both began to laugh, noting how their publicist would not be a fan. But community is integral to their ethos. Mostly because of how supported their people have made them feel through the constant ebbs and flows of running a fashion brand.
“Not only are you receiving so much love during fashion week preparation, but you're also giving a lot by saying ‘absolutely, please come to my show. Please sit and see the next collection up close and personal,’” D’Amore says. “You also have to take into consideration the favors from friends and family, like watching Judah, taking care of everything, making sure that we have our heads on properly. Everyone is so important to us.”
Fashion feels unforgiving sometimes — especially when we think about how quickly trends can fade, the short lifespan of virality, and the designer brands constantly emerging. And yet, this particular incident minutes before the show isn't unique. Crowds will always emerge to be amongst the selected few of what will become an important moment in the zeitgeist. Streetwear in the high-fashion space has always felt like an anomaly. There is always one — until there is another. And that is daunting as a rising design duo looking towards the future. Beyond the blimps of things that can and do go wrong before you premiere your clothes down a runway — similarly to theatre — as a business owner you know that the show must go on.
“The sh*t hits the fan all the time,” Bravado says about their shows. “You either find a solution or you don't. And nine times out of ten you are going to find a solution because there is one.”
Bravado and D’Amore found out about the delayed elevator and growing crowd at 9 p.m., which was the original start time of the show. There were two freight elevators but only one was working that night. (Ultimately, the show began at 10 p.m.) They weren’t aware of the slowed process of entering the venue when they scouted the location, so this day of issue was news to them.
Sometimes things happen that are out of your control, the duo notes after the show. “We were focused on putting on the show. As designers and business owners, we do wear many hats, but this is particularly why we partner with extremely talented and efficient production teams that ensure guest hospitality and safety are the priority. We are grateful that no one was seriously injured, and that the show was able to go on as planned.”
Post-show is when all the bills will come in. D’Amore is always appalled by how immense the Uber receipt is. But with their newly-found access and support from consumers and the CFDA, they’re able to withstand the financial aspect of making it in fashion. More than anything, they care about putting on for the people coming behind them — the ones who have the skill set but need the platform.
“As we grow we're trying to bring as many people with us as we can,” D’Amore says. “We want to help as many people along the way — the same way others took chances on us and provided us with opportunities and resources.”
And even though their show proved hard to enter, D’Amore and Bravado feel a responsibility to champion other designers coming behind them because "once it's open they'll fly right through it.”
