Puppets And Puppets

Puppets and Puppets is an independent fashion label founded in New York in 2018 by Carly Mark and Ayla Argentina. The brand developed from a shared creative practice combining fashion, sculpture, performance, reclaimed materials, and deliberately eccentric visual ideas. Mark served as creative director and publicist, while Argentina contributed substantially to garment construction and sewing. Their division of labor allowed the label to present collections as both clothing lines and staged artistic worlds, with Mark directing the overall concept, art direction, and show themes and Argentina bringing technical construction and fashion-history knowledge to the garments. The label's name comes from Puppet, Mark's chihuahua mix. Mark has also used the term as a satirical reference to the fashion system: models, consumers, and trend followers can all be understood as being directed by external forces. This tension between playfulness and critique became central to the brand's identity. Its work frequently mixes streetwear, grunge references, theatrical silhouettes, absurdist details, and one-of-a-kind pieces. Recycled and reclaimed materials, including items sourced from eBay and the Salvation Army or reused from Mark's earlier sculpture and video work, have been important to the label's early practice. Puppets and Puppets' early collections emphasized wearable art rather than conventional commercial fashion. Its first collection was presented as an anti-fast-fashion statement and combined a 1990s do-it-yourself sensibility with exaggerated, harlequin-like costume. Later collections developed elaborate narrative themes. A collection inspired by Fabergé eggs, the Romanoffs, and American Psycho used egg-related imagery across clothing and accessories, including shoes made from egg cartons and bralette details resembling sunny-side-up eggs. The label's fall 2020 collection, titled Moebius, drew on Jean Giraud's science-fiction artwork and storyboards connected with the unrealized adaptation of Dune. Models were treated as characters, and the collection prioritized storytelling and costume over straightforward commercial utility. Although the earliest runway pieces were not generally put into production, the brand found a commercially durable signature in its trompe-l'oeil Cookie Leather Top Handle Bag. The design uses a structured leather bag with a hyperrealistic chocolate-chip cookie motif attached to its front. It became one of Puppets and Puppets' best-known products and has been revisited through new colorways and limited variations. The accessory helped translate the label's highly conceptual runway language into a recognizable, sellable product category. By 2023, Ayla Argentina had left the label, and Puppets and Puppets was being operated solely by Mark. That year, Mark was nominated for the Fashion Trust US St. John Knits Award for ready-to-wear. In 2024, Mark announced plans to relocate the business to London, reduce the size of the team, and leave ready-to-wear in order to concentrate on accessories. This represented a strategic narrowing of the business around the category in which the label had achieved its clearest commercial recognition. Puppets and Puppets therefore occupies a position between independent fashion house, art-driven design studio, and accessories brand, using humor and visual surprise to distinguish its products from conventional luxury and fast-fashion offerings.

Puppets and Puppets began in New York in 2018 as a collaboration between artist and creative director Carly Mark and garment-maker Ayla Argentina. The label's early identity was shaped by the contrast between Mark's conceptual and communications role and Argentina's technical sewing and construction expertise. Mark described the partnership as having shared creative input while recognizing Argentina's specialized knowledge of garment construction and fashion history. The first collection positioned the brand against fast fashion. It used approximately 35 percent salvaged materials, including objects acquired through eBay and the Salvation Army as well as materials from Mark's previous sculpture and video projects. The result combined a 1990s do-it-yourself aesthetic with theatrical, harlequin-like costume and wearable-art elements. Rather than presenting clothing as simple seasonal merchandise, the label treated collections as visual environments built around humor, exaggeration, and material transformation. Subsequent collections extended this approach through strong narrative references. One collection drew on Fabergé eggs, the Romanoffs, and American Psycho, creating a surreal world of egg imagery. Egg cartons were transformed into footwear, while bralette details resembled fried egg yolks. The collection's use of eggs also suggested the idiom of walking on eggshells. For fall 2020, the label turned to the science-fiction artist Jean Giraud, known as Moebius, and his storyboards for the failed film adaptation of Dune. The Moebius collection treated each model as a character and made costume and storytelling more important than immediate commercial practicality. Cookie and popcorn embellishments reinforced the collection's playful, cinematic quality. The brand's most consequential commercial development came from a trompe-l'oeil chocolate-chip cookie handbag introduced in connection with the Moebius period. The Cookie Leather Top Handle Bag translated the label's surreal food references into a recognizable accessory: a conventional leather bag was decorated with a highly realistic cookie motif. While many of the early runway looks were not manufactured for broader sale, the cookie bag achieved commercial success and became the label's signature product. New colors and limited editions allowed Puppets and Puppets to maintain the novelty of the original idea while building a more sustainable accessories business around it. The label's overall design language has continued to move between streetwear and theatrical fashion. Critics have associated it with grunge, dramatic silhouettes, recycled materials, food-themed details, and deliberately absurd one-off pieces. Its styling can also combine casual or preppy garments with unexpected proportions and prints, giving the brand a distinctly New York interpretation of sophistication: polished but eccentric, comfortable but visually disruptive. By 2023, Argentina had departed from the business and Mark was running Puppets and Puppets alone. Mark's recognition continued through a nomination for the 2023 Fashion Trust US St. John Knits Award for ready-to-wear. In 2024, she announced a planned move to London, a smaller team, and a decision to leave ready-to-wear. The label's stated direction became a concentration on accessories, particularly the category in which its conceptual design language had achieved the strongest commercial traction. The change reflects a shift from a broad, labor-intensive fashion collection model toward a more focused accessories-led operation.

• 2024

  Business shifts toward accessories

  [1]Puppets and Puppetsen.wikipedia.org

  Mark announced a planned relocation to London, team reduction, and exit from ready-to-wear.

• 2023

  Carly Mark receives Fashion Trust US nomination

  [1]Puppets and Puppetsen.wikipedia.org

  Mark was nominated for the Fashion Trust US St. John Knits Award for ready-to-wear.

• 2020

  Moebius collection presented

  [1]Puppets and Puppetsen.wikipedia.org

  The fall 2020 collection drew on Jean Giraud's Moebius artwork and Dune-related storyboards, using character-driven costume and food-inspired embellishment.

• 2018

  Puppets and Puppets founded in New York

  [1]Puppets and Puppetsen.wikipedia.org

  Carly Mark and Ayla Argentina established Puppets and Puppets as a collaborative fashion label.

• 2018

  Anti-fast-fashion debut collection

  [1]Puppets and Puppetsen.wikipedia.org

  The first collection combined wearable art, a 1990s DIY aesthetic, theatrical costume, and a substantial proportion of salvaged materials.

Independent, art-driven fashion that combines theatrical design, grunge and streetwear references, humor, reclaimed materials, and commercially focused novelty accessories.

• Apparel · 2018

  Ready-to-wear

  Puppets and Puppets' ready-to-wear collections combine dramatic silhouettes, grunge and streetwear references, theatrical styling, and humorous food or object-inspired details. Early collections often functioned more like wearable art than conventional commercial assortments, with reclaimed materials and character-based presentation. In 2024, Carly Mark announced plans to leave ready-to-wear and focus the business on accessories.

• Handbag · 2020

  Cookie Leather Top Handle Bag

  A structured leather top-handle bag featuring a hyperrealistic chocolate-chip cookie motif. Developed from the label's trompe-l'oeil and food-inspired design language, the bag became Puppets and Puppets' signature commercial product. The brand has issued additional colorways and limited variations of the concept.

• Accessories

  Novelty accessories

  The label's accessory work uses recognizable foods, theatrical objects, and surreal embellishments to turn otherwise familiar bags and fashion items into humorous sculptural products. Accessories became increasingly central to the business after the announced 2024 move away from ready-to-wear.

• 2024

  Relocation and accessories-led restructuringStrategy

  Background

  After Argentina's departure and the growing recognition of the label's cookie handbag and other accessories, Carly Mark announced a plan to relocate the business from New York to London and reduce its team.

  Action taken

  The brand planned to exit ready-to-wear and concentrate solely on accessories.

  Aftermath

  The announced change narrows Puppets and Puppets' business around its most recognizable commercial category, although the long-term outcome is not documented in the supplied sources.

  Source

1. 1Puppets and Puppetsen.wikipedia.org