Pyer Moss wows with couture show honoring Black inventors

The second time was a charm for designer Kerby Jean-Raymond and his Pyer Moss label

IRVINGTON, N.Y. -- This time, the weather gods were smiling on Kerby Jean-Raymond and his label, Pyer Moss. So too were the fashion gods. Two days after torrential rains and lightning sent guests fleeing for cover and forced Jean-Raymond to postpone unveiling his hotly awaited first couture collection, the sun came out Saturday and the crowds came back. They were rewarded with a hugely imaginative, visually audacious show that blurred the lines between fashion and art as it paid tribute to the ingenuity of Black inventors often overlooked by history. And so, there was the peanut butter dress — literally, a huge, soft sculpted jar of the stuff. There was a stunning hot roller cape — which was what it sounds like, hot rollers from head to toe. There was an ice cream cone with chaps for the cone. There was an air-conditioning unit, an old-fashioned mobile phone, a kitchen mop. There was a pastel pink lampshade dress, with beaded fringes. There was a chess board, and a white metal folding chair, and a bottlecap — each costume a sophisticated work of sculpture. There was also a refrigerator with colorful letter magnets spelling out the phrase: “But who invented Black trauma?”