At Staffonly, the clothes made a better case for the collection than its rather elaborate theory of human behavior. Titled No Duty to Be Cute, the spring show took the zoo as a metaphor for the workplace, where people, like animals, are expected to fit the specifications of whoever is in charge. The point was made, perhaps more than necessary, in a performance about casting, conformity, and the persistence of rules.
The clothes, however, needed less explanation. Colorful, slightly preppy uniforms had the air of an eccentric school or a particularly unruly office, sabotaged by twisted shirt fronts, skewed plackets, displaced pockets and sleeves gathered into irregular pleats, and ties worn backward. Layered collars and cuffs, and contrasting panels and fabrics that could be folded and fixed into shape, gave silhouettes an off-kilter charm. The effect was orderly at a distance, increasingly wayward up close: conformity with a few objections lodged in the seams.