exit music

Maxwell Osborne and Dao-Yi Chow Are Leaving DKNY

Maxwell Osborne and Dao-Yi Chow at a DKNY show. Photo: Albert Urso/Getty Images for New York Fashion Week

Public School designers Maxwell Osborne and Dao-Yi Chow started their tenure at DKNY with a significant amount of buzz about reimagining the brand — and a big-ticket show at the World Trade Center Oculus in September 2015. However, their debut riffed on DKNY’s ‘90s heyday, as opposed to reinventing it from whole cloth. And their tenure there has been marked by some unenthusiastic reviews, like one comparing their first collection to “ordering a dozen boxes of Girl Scout cookies and winding up, somehow, with only Thin Mints.” (Though the sweatshirts from their second season that played on the DKNY acronym were a streetwear hit.)

Now, the duo is parting ways with the company less than two years after they were hired, Women’s Wear Daily reports. Apparel giant G-III — the company behind Ivanka Trump’s fashion line — is taking over the formerly LVMH-owned Donna Karan International, and CEO Caroline Brown will be leaving along with the designers.

“Given the company sale and subsequent change in strategies, we have decided to step down and focus on our own business Public School,” said Osborne and Chow in a joint statement. “It’s been an unbelievable experience to work side by side with the wonderful people at DKNY, especially our amazing design team and atelier. We wish the company success in the future.”

Maxwell Osborne and Dao-Yi Chow Are Leaving DKNY