New York Fashion Week: The knowns, unknowns and its groove
Field notes from the ground and my phone screen
I think it’s safe to say that there are two kinds of designers who show on the New York calendar and I’m not sure if it’s fair to call them old guard vs. new guard, because it’s not really about that, but from the first group, what is apparent is that most of the ideas being presented and iterated upon are reflective of the broader, international movement of fashion — the trends that are born in Europe and interpreted here overseas.
I say expertly because even though a lot of people stick their noses up at how inspired by “the majors” (there are like, 5 designers who actually make sticky trends that last long enough to achieve wide appeal) so many of our designers are, I actually think when New York fashion is at its best, it’s not necessarily making brand new ideas so much as it is contextualizing, riffing on and making more relatable the esoteric ones that come out of Europe.
I get why the people (editors) stick their noses up. It’s not that interesting to write about derivative clothes, and if you are going to the big shows in Europe, you are jaded by the time New York Fashion Week comes around.
What you are served here though is a field day for the buyers. As a buyer, it must be fun as hell. From the perspective of a consumer (I consider myself one), I find it fun as hell. This is fashion you don’t really have to work for but which gets the job done to the extent that it tugs at the emotional strings of your sleeve.
It might not make you uncomfortable in the way prolific ideas from that of Miuccia Prada or Jonathan Anderson do but 👆🏻 just look at this perfect mixture of stretch capri pants and leather cocoon top as presented at 3.1 Phillip Lim. Or from the same collection,
This combo of jewel-encrusted top with a high slit skirt and sheer knee-high socks with (double entendre) sheer flats too. Neither look reinvents the wheel but sure serves the kind I’d like to have on my bike.
I’ll give you another example from Michael Kors, a better example of “commercial” (though still collection) fashion:
If you have not yet picked up on one of the pervasive themes of the season in New York, it is the entree of sheer garments. We’re post-ascension by now, possibly entering the realm of long-term establishment into the wearable zeitgeist.
The market
What you see in New York overall is more reflective of how people actually dress (which I say with a heap of salt) as opposed to, necessarily, the concepts they gravitate towards.
New York is a commercial market, and there is nothing wrong with that. While the runway still (and in my view should) reflects a less realistic interpretation of what real women wear —prioritizing the feel of a season over the technical wears, these are still, to a degree, the brands of those real women. More and more lately, I appreciate this.
At the Khaite show last Saturday, I recognized enough personal shoppers to suspect that her seating was configured to prioritize the characters that spin the financial wheels of her business and that gesture seemed smart to me. Shouldn’t those people be placed front and center, openly recognized as important to the vitality of a brand?
One more note re the brands (in general) and their ideas: it’s not fair to (and I wouldn’t) suggest that these designers are knocking anyone off — the ideas, or how they are spun out for our consumption belong to the designers in question. I’m a firm believer that when different ideas, contexts, and experiences are melded together, they make new things that are often very worthwhile.
The key thing I’m getting at with the comparison to Europe is that the designers from this first group of New York brands operate within the ecosystem of fashion as we have always known it, the ecosystem that appeals to an international audience.
Niche neighborhood nuance
The second group of designers is more niche. It seems to take a different approach to what it means to make clothes. It’s like the ideas are more reflective of where the culture is being made in a small pocket of New York — less big picture, grand scheme, more niche neighborhood nuance.
They’re Ssense brands, you know?
The style template most pervasive these days from this group is of the archetypal cool girl who has emerged on Canal Street in the era post-pandemic, even if by now, because of my mere uttering it, she is (to her own chagrin) kind of commercial.
But whatever, I say, because the style is good. It feels fresh and alive and inspiring and it also feels different. More precious in a way. And definitely less interested in playing the big wig game.
It’s impossible to talk about this aesthetic without mentioning Maryam Nassir Zadeh, who didn’t show this season, but who may have been among the first burgeoning fashion fixtures to make it to the Lower East Side decades ago with her store on Norfolk Street.
Her genius has always been in selling these tiny visual details that are sewn into the seams of her clothes. They make life beautiful, more rich in unexpected ways.
It’s not an easy quality to replicate, but when you have it, you have it.
One designer who really caught my attention this season was Michelle del Rio, who I had known nothing about and caught only through my screen while tapping through Laura Reilly’s stories.
I could try to describe the collection, which you can see on her Instagram now, or distill it into a series of words that point to this or that but what struck me was really the energy, the vibe. Even through a screen! I think that might be half the thing about this second group of designers. There is a sort of impermanence or imperfection or roughness about the garments that makes them feel fluid and fresh and present. They’re not necessarily emotionally charged, but somehow they are moving.
Brands that are well-known by now who have been designing into this world (whether or not the de facto aesthetic) include Eckhaus Latta, Collina Strada, and Sandy Liang, who for Spring 2024 showed some fun, easy-to-want skants (pants with mini skirts over them), skapris (you get where I’m going with this) and tiny skirts or tap shorts with knitwear and structured jackets.
It doesn’t feel very Bode when you look at it, but in conceit, I see some parallels.
Broadly speaking, I mean. Tiny, flimsy bottoms and heavier tops was a pervasive theme across the board of the whole of New York fw. Tory Burch nailed it on Monday with these looks, structured and romantic at once:
Altuzarra had one variation of his own too
Meanwhile, Diotima’s signature crochet work added a new dynamic to the equation by softening down a red tee and pants looks.
This is another brand I’ve had my eye on — the craftsmanship is overwhelming (in a good way), the styling feels current and the prospect the brand offers, of adding crochet to the evergreen canon of viable styling accents no matter the season is, to me, very seductive.
Back to the mini skirts and tops for a second: I’m partial towards the combination of rigid and soft. It makes for a good balance but the marquee sentiment with this trend really is that hemlines have gotten much higher.
Like they might actually be underwear at this point. If the index is to be believed, this can’t be good for the economy.
Or maybe we’re in the worst of it? Let’s go with that for now.
Peeking out of the high slits from Bevza were also micro white shorts you could see from the sides. The tiny bra tops caught my attention too.
But the best of this collection, designed by the Ukrainian designer of the same name, was in the easy and simple, everyday silhouettes that will be great to live a real life in next summer.
Another collection I loved: Palomo Spain, which I’d similarly known nothing about prior to peeping the sheer overlays styled with ripped denim or the layers of cascading ruffles.
The magic of the lesser-known
The thing that is becoming clear to me about New York is that the most interesting and electric points of view coming out of this town are coming out of lesser-known places.
I’m old guard in a way because of the decade in which I came up in fashion — a Marc Jacobs show still stops me in my tracks, and I appreciate the honoring of old house tradition but progress is also exciting to me. I find change thrilling (though I struggle with transition) and change seems, in so many ways, like it is actually here.
Even just as far as the actual clothes go, there’s certainly a shift taking place that’s interesting no matter where you fall on the guard gates. It’s a shot away from poplin and structured, rigid garments towards romantic lacework or soft fabrics that free flow and hang, sort of like they’re communicating with your body as opposed to just hanging over it.
Even FForme’s streamlined minimalism flowed a little more fluidly.
The last collection I’ll mention is from Daniella Kallmeyer, who showed on Wednesday at none other than Dimes Square flagship cool-zone, Nine Orchard. Beverly Nguyen (who is opening a must-visit shop in the neighborhood imminently) styled the collection which was a laidback take on Kallmeyer’s usual suiting, a sort of soft interpretation of the masculine edge that undertones her power clothes.
I loved the looks with no pants (what else is new), the use of giant laundry bags (obscure totes are the new status bag), and how the tanks layered over each other into the bottoms. It might be the flip-flops that made it all seem so approachable.
Overall, it feels like fashion week in New York is on the other side of an identity crisis: figuring out what value it brings to the whole, where it sits in the broader constellation, and why — not if — it matters.
I’m excited by what I see. It is youthful, alive, and straightforward in such a way that still provokes the emotional tug you want clothes to give to you. We’ll see what Europe spins out for us.
In the mean time, tomorrow at sundown inaugurates the beginning of Rosh Hashana — the Jewish New Year. Shana tova if you celebrate, or even if you don’t. They’re saying September is the January.
I’ll see you next week,
Leandra
I don’t like reading catwalk reports - and yet this was one of my fave newsletters of yours this year! I think it’s so funny the way ‘commercial’ (and New York as a fashion week) has always been seen as less. 99.9% of shoppers do not care if something is super directional or a ‘first’ in that texture. They just want to look good and feel good. And whilst I admire the Fabrican dress for EG, I include myself in that.
I loved this essay. I don’t read or peruse any other fashion coverage, because I don’t need to! I trust your insights and ability to contextualize the industry as it moves through time. It’s also just really pleasurable to read.