Kyle MacLachlan, Über Dad and Twin Peaks‘ Agent Cooper, Sat Front-Row at Balenciaga’s Dadcore Spring 2018 Show
As dads walked the runway hand-in-hand with their kids, Special Agent Dale Cooper took it all in from the sidelines.
Few of the looks that filed down Balenciaga’s Spring 2018 menswear runway in Paris Wednesday would look out of place in Twin Peaks, Washington, pop. 51,201. Opening with an oversized mustard-colored blazer and bright blue dad jeans, the show positioned dadcore as the most covetable look—and to underline that thesis, designer Demna Gvasalia even recruited a few dad-models to walk the runway with their kids.
Fittingly, taking it all in from the front row was the ultimate dad himself, Kyle MacLachlan, the actor best known as the star of Twin Peaks, where he plays Special Agent Dale Cooper, the FBI agent sent to Twin Peaks to investigate the murder of homecoming queen Laura Palmer.
Images from the event depict MacLachlan in pastoral serenity, surrounded by the lush greenery of the Bois de Boulogne in Paris. For the occasion, the actor wore a long, faintly pinstriped blazer, somewhere between workwear and a supervillain’s overcoat, paired with matching trousers, a crisp white button-down, and black shoes, a polished, yet still ’80s-inflected look.
MacLachlan, newly minted front-row star, is a man of many moods. (Of course, MacLachlan famously dated supermodel Linda Evangelista back in the ’90s—they co-starred in a Barneys campaign in 1992—but this week’s Balenciaga show seems to be among his first front-row appearances in a good long while. )
He’s a vintner: the founder of the Washington-based wine label Pursued by Bear, named for the Shakespearean stage directions and now counting three varietals—a cabernet, a syrah, and a new rosé. Most famously, he’s the star of Twin Peaks: he plays the quirky foodie FBI agent Cooper in the original David Lynch series, a role he is currently reprising in the show’s Showtime reboot. He himself is something of a foodie: It’s not just on-screen that he knows his way around cherry pie and a “damn fine” cup of coffee. He’s a dad: His son with wife producer Desiree Gruber, Callum Lyon MacLachlan, was born in 2008. He’s also an unexpected fashion plate: He appeared front-row at Balenciaga alongside his wife, Gruber, and he’s previously made appearances at amfAR and CFDA-sponsored events.
Balenciaga made a fitting setting for the actor, as the show paid tribute to dads—and to the uniform MacLachlan has been known for on and off scren since the ’90s. (That is, ultimate dad-wear.)
Some critics have already noted the parallels between that first look—mustard blazer and jeans—and the look of Agent Cooper’s Twin Peaks alter-ego Dougie Jones in the rebooted Twin Peaks. But the retro windbreakers, high-waisted trousers, and patterned button-down shirts would be equally at home in rural Washington state. (Perhaps less suited to the setting are the denim jorts layered over longer pants. But we wouldn’t expect Gvasalia to create anything short of an iconoclastic homage to the look.)
Gvasalia isn’t the first designer to pay homage to dads: Off-White recruited creative collaborators DJ Acyde and Tremaine Emory to work on its Fall 2017 collection, where the duo debuted their Off-White c/o A®TDAD LLC, and dads-as-fetish-objects have proven fruitful inspiration for collections and campaigns of the past.
But, while moms and daughters have walked runways (think Elie Saab), dads with kids are a less common sighting. And who better to observe the affair than Kyle MacLachlan, alias Special Agent Dale Cooper, alias Ultimate Dad?
Naomi Watts, Laura Dern, and Patricia Arquette talk working with David Lynch on Twin Peaks and beyond:
