Puppets and Puppets
DESIGNER: Carly Mark PICTURED WITH: Ruby Aldridge, model and friend
Carly Mark had a successful career as an artist when, at 30, she switched to fashion: “I kind of realized that jobwise I wasn’t fully happy in fine art.” She started making costumes for videos and shows, and her first collection debuted in a West Village townhouse in 2019. “I remember backstage at the first runway show just thinking, like, This is it. Like, For the first time, I feel like I’m flowing with the current rather than swimming against one,” says Mark. She met the model Ruby Aldridge when Aldridge was still in high school. “We became super-close just from running in the same social circles,” Mark says. Aldridge was the last look in that debut show, wearing a hooded cape with patchwork fabric offset by streaks of blue in her hair: “I think about her in that outfit a lot when I’m designing,” Mark says. “I loved the way that season was mixed, matched, my fearlessness there. I’m like, Let me home in on that.” Since then, Puppets and Puppets has made six collections and released much-discussed pieces like a handbag adorned with a lifelike chocolate-chip cookie, a dress with plates atop boobs, and cheese-wedge heels.