BruceGlen’s “Life Lately” Collection | NYFW SS24 (Recap)

Fashion

Sep 18, 2023 @ 3:00 pm By Shirley Reynozo

Founded by identical twins Bruce and Glen Proctor, BruceGlen’s New York fashion adventure began when they were forced to drop out of school because of financial difficulties. That summer, they interned for Beyonce’s House of Dereon. After fits and starts, including a lengthy career launching celebrity brands for Beyonce, Nicki Minaj, Trey Songz, Diddy and a life altering lay-off, the Proctors relaunched BruceGlen in 2019 with a focus on accessories.

BruceGlen are an inspired twin duo who do a phenomenal job at bringing people together. Their new SS24 “Life Lately” collection stands out by bringing black culture, vibrant colors, and God to the center of their creative adventures. The collections are bold, electric and conversational! Color, metal hardware and mixed patterns are key to BruceGlen!

I was fortunate to attend their runway show for the FW 2023 season (for the full recap click here). Based on last season I knew I had to do everything in my power to attend their new SS24 runway, and I’m glad I did! Upon entry, we were welcomed by warm energy and beautiful flower decor by John Goodman. I felt like I had transported to a botanical garden with the vibrant fabrics of BruceGlen aligning the walls. The seating area felt like a family reception. In efforts to make everyone feel at home, every seat was adorned with a beautiful rose. When the show began we were swayed by Gospel music and the warm vocals of Dante Bowe.

Models of all ages, colors and sizes walked the runway with serene expressions and a flower in their hand. The flowers were given out at random to members of the audience. It was a beautiful way to include audience members and make us feel just as special as the models that we admired under the bright lights.

Watch my recap reel of the full BruceGlen Life Lately SS24 Collection here!

Their new collection is bold. The different patterns and color swatches evoke inner peace and joy. I even noticed all the models were wearing TEVA sandals on the runway; when I asked the twins about TEVA they shared that there is a BruceGlen x TEVA collaboration coming soon.

When asked what the inspiration behind their new collection they responded

“The title of this show is Life Lately, and it’s about reflecting on the present. You can get wrapped up in the future, you can et wrapped up in the past and most of the time no one is living presently and that begins to affect your now. The present is a present, it’s a gift from God that we don’t often get a chance to experience because we’re often focused on the past or the future. This collection was about taking time to reflect, taking time to enjoy the now, whatever the now may be”.

Additionally they aim to disrupt boundaries and cultural norms.

“I think now a days it’s a little more acceptable for people to wear a lot of color, especially men. Growing up, we didn’t wear a lot of color, especially in high school, those places and spaces where you care about what people think. We would wear a white t-shirt, a black t-shirt and jeans. All the while inside there was color waiting to burst out. Especially for black men, being able to wear color and express themselves, stand out and be an individual, that’s what we are about.”

“That was one part of it, but then even when we got to the fashion industry and we started designing for other lines, even putting out our first collection in 2006, we did a lot of what we thought the industry would accept and wanted in variations of what was going on at the moment. There was a defined retail and monetary success, so we were so caught up in doing something that looked like what we should do, instead of searching deep for what was inside of us, and having that come out of us. That’s a big part of the BruceGlen brand. We don’t really look at trends, we do what feels good to us“.

What’s evermore beautiful about BruceGlen is that they are very international about representing the diversity in human kind. When asked what it takes to be a model they jokingly responded

“It doesn’t take anything! You’re a person, you can model for BruceGlen. Even if you’re an ameba, a plant cell you can model for us. We gonna put color on you and you’re gonna like it!”

All jokes aside this is very heartfelt. In their continuous effort to be an inclusive brand, they revealed they are working on the technology to cater to everyone’s size. One will be able to put their measurements and have pieces styled perfectly to their body. I can’t wait to see where BruceGlen will take their creative liberties in fashion next!