New York Fashion Week serves up clothes you can actually wear
Wardrobe essentials for multifaceted people, who want a little sexiness and witchiness too.
New York City is back to being the city that never sleeps. A place where you can reinvent yourself and dress for wherever the day may take you.
A key theme from this season’s New York Fashion Week is that for this kind of multifaceted life, you’re going to need clothes to match – good coats, a dress that’s interesting enough to take you from work to out and something with a little bit of magic.
The season might be missing a few big-hitters, Tom Ford, Ralph Lauren and insider-y fashion favourites such as Peter Do and Maryam Nassir Zadeh were absent from the schedule, while Marc Jacobs staged a tribute to the late fashion designer Vivienne Westwood a week ahead of show time. But there was still plenty of star power.
This was as evident in the celebrity-packed front row at Rodarte, which included the likes of Brie Larson, Natasha Lyonne and Tavi Gevinson, as it was ultimate cool girl, actress Chloë Sevigny walking the runway for Proenza Schouler and American Vice President Kamala Harris’ step-daughter Ella Emhoff for Collina Strada.
Clothes you can actually wear, a sometimes novel thought in the stunt-filled, algorithm-chasing fashion world, has been a key message so far. Which is not to say that this makes for dull fashion. This was particularly well expressed by relatively new brand, Fforme. Created by Paul Helbers and Laura Vazquez, who both spent time at major fashion houses such as Louis Vuitton and Jil Sander, the cocoon shapes and technical details such as bonded leather made for truly elevated, interesting wardrobe workhorse pieces. Elsewhere, things were pretty sexy with plenty of cool leather, lots of black and a newfound focus on the body with sheer details and slip dresses – there was sheer black lace amid the red carpet ready gowns at Jason Wu and sheer, slashed details at Eckhaus Latta.
At Proenza Schouler, the New York favourite this year celebrating its 20th anniversary, designers Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez zeroed in on the kinds of essential pieces women can turn to year after year. The pair told Wallpaper magazine it was “possibly our most personal collection … it is simply a collection of clothing we find compelling and essential right now, a complete wardrobe”. This meant a focus on the brand’s good tailoring with oversized and sculpted blazers cinched in with leather ties, monochrome dresses with tie-dye details that peeked at the edges and cosy knitwear.
On the topic of wardrobe essentials for chic and busy women, there were plenty of sharp-shouldered full-length coats, longer-line dresses and high-waisted trousers paired with sheer, filmy shirts at Khaite.
Australian designer Dion Lee explored the idea of shedding your skin and reinvention with a sexily, and sensually subversive collection, which incorporated his signature harness details and tailoring with layers of sheer hosiery (“like a tissue around the body,” Lee told Women’s Wear Daily), and details such as fishnet tops, eyelets on leather and scale-like shibori fabrics.
Fashion fantasy can easily exist alongside wardrobe essentials too, as evidenced by the Rodarte show. Here, sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy staged an opulent gothic romance at a glitter-filled banquet, sending long, trailing trumpet-sleeved dresses that Morticia Addams would be immediately coveting, with witchy details such as black lace and boudoir ready slip dresses with ruffle and lace collars.
New York Fashion Week continues until Wednesday with Tory Burch, Coach, Michael Kors, Brandon Maxwell and Luar still to show.