All that paring down can drain excitement.
“While the collections have been clean, commercial and polished, there’s a lingering sense that New York could use a dash of daring and fun,” Mytheresa’s Hsu says, adding that outerwear was the hero of the season. Almost every designer put forward their version of a cocoon to wrap up in. “The city thrives on creativity, and I look forward to seeing designers inject more energy in the future.”
The new, new guard
But there is energy, and it’s palpable, if you know where to look.
If the splashy names (Calvin Klein, Khaite, Michael Kors) are playing it somewhat pared back and safe, New York’s buzzy talent — Christopher John Rogers, Diotima’s Scott, Henry Zankov, Eckhaus Latta, Lopez’s Luar — are doing anything but. “I feel like there’s a new guard in the air. There’s a new energy. It’s a community,” Zankov said during his presentation on Monday.
This community is taking bold swings. “I had strikes against me for being Latino, for being flamboyant, being gay, for dressing the way I dress,” Lopez said backstage at Luar’s Monday evening show. “I’m not going in the closet for nobody ever again.” A Luar show, he said, is “a platform to bring people together, immerse people in a really beautiful experience, and enjoy a time of prosperity, love, abundance [and] joy”.
Even Allen — one of the most talked about emerging designers of the week — who worked at The Row prior to launching her own label, doesn’t fall into the traps of oversimplicity in the name of ‘chic’ and ‘sellable’. Coats in bright, cerulean blue were propped out at the hip with detachable crinoline petticoats — and paired with frilly tulle knickers that poked out underneath. (For those less daring, matching blue pants were also on offer.)
It’s worth remembering that NYFW is, by and large, about newness and independence over any major conglomerate-backed brand presence. The new guard is not just committed to what will sell; but to design that moves the needle — and has something to say.
“It’s a responsibility to engage in cultural moments and not shy away from what has happened,” Scott says. “It’s part of our jobs not just to reflect or comment on, but to try and find a way forward through what we do. Who are we, as people working in culture, if we’re not engaging in the conversation? This is not a moment to abandon that discourse that I’ve been addressing since I began.”
Correction: Kate Barton was not absent from the calendar as previously reported. She showed by-appointment instead of via runway format.
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