Fashion Week in New York City: A glimpse at the mysterious shadow personas and shimmering evening attire showcased during the event
New York Fashion Week Kicks Off with a Variety of Styles
New York Fashion Week is currently underway, with runway shows taking place in various locations such as warehouses, churches, and piers. This year's event is a vibrant mix of avant-garde designs, familiar favourites, and a strong emphasis on cultural expression.
Speaking to CNN, designer Nicholas Aburn mentioned that his collection for the avant-garde label Area reflects the duality of New York, with its avant-garde and crazy characters framed by normal, chic but quiet people. His first collection features theatrical party looks and wearable streetwear with unexpected twists.
Coach's latest collection, designed by Stuart Vevers, evokes a balance of grit and glamour. The collection includes baggy workwear pants, leather staples, plaid blazers in gray, tan, and white, and accessories such as snap coin purse necklaces and clutches, dangling earrings made of small real books.
Prabal Gurung, the designer who returned with an intimate show at New York Fashion Week, transformed a former bank building in Chinatown into a permanent cultural center for Asian arts.
Some designers leaned into the familiar, presenting collections that felt like smart extensions of past seasons by building on their signature styles. Tory Burch's collection explores the complexity of women, featuring the embroidered monogram initials of her design team, slingback heels adorned with dainty barbed wire, and an emphasis on color and texture. At Khaite, founder Cate Holstein focused on the label's established symbols of power dressing, with bold shoulders, clean lines, exaggerated shapes, limited color palettes, and a balance between hard and soft materials.
Off-White, designed by Ib Kamara, staged its collection on a rooftop basketball court of a Manhattan high school, inviting street artists to transform the environment.
Eckhaus Latta presented deconstructed looks, including tees worn by male models with the front entirely cut out, and utilitarian pieces like structured denim sets, belt bags, and shorts zipped open at the thighs, offset by ultra-sheer knits and mesh.
At the Collina Strada show, models came out in twos, with one outfit entirely in black, mimicking the gestures of their more colorful counterparts to create an illusion of a shadow. The all-black clothes represented 'humanity's darkest impulses' according to the show notes.
Willy Chavarria returned to New York with a small, intimate show on Wall Street, featuring womenswear looks from his latest collection first shown in Paris during the summer. The format harkened back to the traditional salon show, with models holding numbered cards to identify the outfits they were wearing for purchase.
Notable attendees at the shows included Gwyneth Paltrow, Leslie Bibb, Rosalía, Lily Collins, Jung Kook of BTS, Cardi B and her daughter Kulture, Martha Stewart, Law Roach, Nic Vansteenberghe, and Olandria Carthen. Wang's latest show was attended by Cardi B and her daughter Kulture, among others.
Alexander Wang announced plans to turn a former bank into a permanent cultural space dedicated to Asian arts.
This year's New York Fashion Week is a testament to the city's vibrant fashion scene, with designers pushing boundaries and embracing cultural diversity.
