New York Fashion Week this season had a largely buoyant mood, one which reflects the renaissance of the city that seemed to unfold this summer (call it the Mamdani-Knicks effect). Established labels like Calvin Klein, Tory Burch and Khaite showed some of their strongest outings in some time, while a slew of younger labels – which now arguably dominate the schedule, having been absent for some time – showed up and delivered. These included LII, the label helmed by Zane Li that won the LVMH Prize Karl Lagerfeld Award earlier this month in Paris, Rachel Scott’s Diotima, and Ashlynn Park’s Ashlyn – each is distinct, but they share a similarly creative outlook.
There were also energetic debuts from Henry Zankov at Diane von Furstenberg, who channelled the free-spirited roots of the label, and Conner Ives, who showed for the first time at New York Fashion Week, having up to this point shown in London, where he lives and works. His homecoming show (Ives was born in Bedford, New York) took place at The Grill in Midtown, featuring his usual cast of it-girls – this time, from both sides of the pond.
The week was not without controversy, however. At COS’ S/S 2027 runway show, several PETA protestors interrupted proceedings to highlight the brand’s use of wool, before being physically restrained by Steven Kolb, the head of the CFDA. His use of force has been heavily criticised after videos of the event circulated on social media, prompting the CFDA – which organises New York Fashion Week – to put him on leave, pending a full investigation.
Explore our pick of the best shows of New York Fashion Week S/S 2027 below.
Coach
This season, Coach celebrated its 85th anniversary, a moment marked by Stuart Vevers’ latest runway show, held at Pier 36 on New York’s Lower East Side. But, despite models donning party hats and the type of bows that might adorn a gift, as well as a Coach-meets-Studio 54 after-party with shrimp cocktail towers and an enormous glitterball, the collection itself had a more lovelorn feel: this was not polished party attire, rather a selection of garments that sought to capture the idea of time passing. ‘I was thinking about memory and the way familiar things change as we live with them,’ he said, a continuing fascination of the designer, who has often drawn inspiration from the brand’s vintage handbags and enjoys fabrics that bear the marks of wear. ‘I didn’t want to make a retrospective. We turned familiar Coach ideas inside out, exposed their construction, softened them and left traces of a celebration on them.’ In the collection, this figured in slouchy, inside-out tailoring, battered leather tabard vests, and deconstructed knits, while other fabrics conjured peeled-away layers of wallpaper. Accessories drew a more distinct link with the past: a new ‘Turnlock Tote’ was inspired by the turnlock hardware introduced by the brand’s first lead designer, Bonnie Cashin, in the 1970s. Jack Moss
Proenza Schouler
A confident second outing from Rachel Scott at Proenza Schouler saw the Jamaica-born designer – who rose to prominence with her own 2020-founded label Diotima – look towards the New York woman for inspiration. ‘I think that there’s a lot of liberty in how women dress here,’ she told Wallpaper*. ‘We’re not following rules, like: eveningwear must be worn with this kind of shoe, or bag. I mean, you see people in New York in the middle of the day with a gown on, and it’s totally normal and invisible, and I find that really inspiring.’ Cue an amalgam of the dressed-up and the pragmatic: overcoats were adorned with bold zebra prints, sheer floral shirt-dresses were worn over a vest and jeans, while a series of sequin gowns were cut to appear thrown on. Vivid colour (a Scott signature), sinuous cuts and jutting peplums completed the freewheeling look. ‘There's just a freedom [to the way women in New York dress], a boldness and lack of inhibition that I find inspiring,’ said Scott. ‘I really want [my Proenza Schouler] woman to show up now, not just her quieter side. I want to see her in her truthfulness, feeling a bit wild. Summer her!’ Jack Moss
Tory Burch
Tory Burch continued a run of strong collections with a S/S 2027 outing that saw the designer advocate a ‘more is more’ aesthetic. Shown in the round at the Isamu Noguchi Sunken Garden in Lower Manhattan, the collection comprised intriguing combinations and a typically inventive use of colour and print. ‘Granny cardigans’ (which Burch said were the things she was most excited to wear) were richly embroidered; jacquard fabrics recalled fabric wallpapers; and ‘feather’ boas and poms were actually made from shredded silk velvet. This ‘opulent femininity’, as Burch described, was countered by something more pragmatic, like military-style tailoring, colourful trenches (some cut with the voluminous line of an opera coat), and knits constructed with chenille for lightness. ‘I was thinking about how people want to feel joy and optimism right now, that you still need to dream,’ said Burch. ‘Everything feels quite dystopian, so I was thinking about how do you dream, and how do you escape? You can do that through self-expression.’ Jack Moss
READ: At New York Fashion Week, Tory Burch says ‘more is more’
Tommy Hilfiger
For decades, Tommy Hilfiger lived in the penthouse of New York’s Plaza Hotel. Though he has since decamped to Palm Beach – he and his wife Dee now spend the majority of their time in Florida – he chose the landmark to show his S/S 2027 collection in what was something of a homecoming. Taking place in the Plaza’s Palm Court, he assembled perhaps the starriest guest list of the week: a handful of New York Knicks sat alongside Kate Moss, Patrick Schwarzenegger and Camila Cabello, while buzzy American artist Slayyyter provided a live soundtrack to the finale (joining Hilfiger on the runway was a fluffy white dog, rumoured to be owned by Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, the latter having recently appeared in a Tommy Hilfiger campaign). The collection itself hit on the sporty, collegiate signatures that have long defined Tommy Hilfiger the label, and which are currently having a wider renaissance in fashion (houses like Dior and Celine have incorporated preppy elements into recent collections, while Polo Ralph Lauren has become increasingly ubiquitous). ‘Preppy is having a moment,’ said the designer, who also said he had looked towards the everyday style of New Yorkers for the collection. ‘For 40 years, I’ve been inspired by the style of New Yorkers – how the people of the city take the classics and make them their own.’ Jack Moss
Diane von Furstenberg
Henry Zankov chose New York’s High Like to present his first collection for Diane von Furstenberg, which marked a homecoming of sorts: the designer, who rose to prominence with his 2020-founded label, worked at the American brand from 2014-2018 as knitwear design director. It made for an assured start which saw the designer channel the label’s free-spirited roots: ‘She is a rebel; she dresses for herself and no one else,’ he told Wallpaper* of his woman for the season, citing von Furstenberg’s liberatory spirit as inspiration. ‘She moves through life to her own rhythm.’ Cue a collection of bold colour and vivid prints, with garments reflecting the sinuous line of the wrap dress, which von Furstenberg introduced to the house in 1974 (the design took women from office to evening; by 1976, she had sold one million pieces). New tailoring, cut with a roomy, 1970s silhouette, was described by Zankov as ‘languid and easy’, while a series of diaphanous gowns seemed to float on the body. ‘I believe clothes feel modern today when they feel light,’ said Zankov. ‘When a garment is made in the most wonderful fabric and constructed lightly, it is true luxury.’ Jack Moss
READ: Henry Zankov on his Diane von Furstenberg debut: ‘It’s all about body language’
Michael Kors
This season, Michael Kors took guests to the sculpture garden at New York’s MoMA, part of a continuing tour of the city’s cultural landmarks (last season, it was to the Lincoln Centre for opera). The idea had emerged from a summer of travel and visiting museums and galleries, which Kors sees as the epicentre of a city: ‘I love the idea of the mix of people that you see at a museum,’ he said at a preview. ‘Sometimes, it can be as interesting as the art.’ One inspiration for the collection was the modernist movement – particularly its architectural icons like the Breuer Building and the TWA Terminal – which lent the collection a precise, architectural sensibility through clean lines (the simplicity of 1960s silhouettes seems to have been a reference), moments of vivid colour, and sculptural jewellery and accessories. ‘Throughout the whole show, you’ll see these architectural accents, whether it’s the jewellery, the paddle earring, stripes, pops of colour,’ he said. ‘There’s an optimism about it, but it’s realistic optimism; it’s optimism for a city. I think we all need a little bit of optimism in the world today.’ Jack Moss
Calvin Klein Collection
The works of American Minimalist Walter De Maria provided the backdrop to Veronica Leoni’s latest show for Calvin Klein Collection, which took place in Manhattan’s Terminal Warehouse. ‘American Minimalism was a discipline of removal: take away everything that does not carry the work, until only what is necessary remains,’ said creative director Veronica Leoni, who applied the same principles to her collection this season. Taking menswear off the runway, she stripped things back to six foundational pieces that have defined Calvin Klein, but are also the elements of most women’s wardrobes: ‘the coat, the shirt, tailoring, the trouser, the pencil skirt, the slip’. This focus led to her strongest outing at the house yet: particularly appealing were a series of shrunken satin overcoats in powder pink, blue and black, while blazers were cut from cotton for lightness. Dresses, meanwhile, came nipped at the waist or in twisting handkerchief cuts. ‘Calvin drew from [American Minimalism] and turned it toward the body,’ said Leoni. ‘I turn it toward the woman inside it. My minimalism begins there, in the relation between design and a body, with nothing in between. Take everything away. What is left is desire.’ Jack Moss
Eckhaus Latta
At Eckhaus Latta, Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta continued to hone their intriguing blend of the sexy and the homespun with a S/S 2027 collection held on Tribeca’s Walker Street. Modelled by their usual cast of friends and collaborators, the collection eschewed thematics in favour of a comprehensive proposition for a spring wardrobe, from the quotidien (blazers in-set with technical hoods; rumpled skirts; utility trousers and jeans) to the more sensually charged, like beaded mesh trousers that revealed models’ underwear beneath, or sinuous sheer double-layered tops and dresses. The collection also featured a preview of their collaboration with J Crew, which saw the pair put their riff on the American brand’s preppy staples; as that took to the runway, guests were invited to open the envelopes on their seats – each was filled with confetti and glitter, which soon rained down on the showspace. It made for another strong outing from the New York label, which in the past few seasons seems to be enjoying a renaissance. And, 15 years in, that’s something to celebrate. Jack Moss
Conner Ives
This season, Conner Ives shifted from London – where he has shown since the advent of his label – to New York, choosing The Grill in Midtown Manhattan’s Seagram Building to do so (the landmark formerly housed the Four Seasons Grill Room). It was a homecoming for Ives, who was born in Bedford, New York, just an hour or so out of the city, and his playful, pop culture-inflected designs (kimono-style jackets with fur trims; shrunken polos and miniskirts; slogan T-shirts and embellished denim) found new energy here. Though he also did not leave London entirely behind: his usual cast of it-girls were in attendance, both on and off the runway, including the London-based writer and Wallpaper* contributor Osman Ahmed, who walked the show for the third season. ‘I had thought about this show for so long, and I really wanted something that spoke to old New York,’ he said. ‘When I lived upstate, and I came to the city, I think The Grill was one of those places that felt like a kind of hallowed hall or something. It's always really been about bringing my people into these spaces.’ Jack Moss
Ashlyn
Amid a city as frenetic as New York, Seoul-born designer Ashlynn Park managed to carve out a quiet moment of contemplation for her latest collection, which was shown in the intimate, sunlit Cristina Grajales Gallery on Saturday afternoon. On each guest’s chair was a silk scarf by the designer, which was something of a clue for the collection: Park, who began as a pattern cutter, said this was a collection about the possibilities of a single square of cloth (it also felt like a nod to a Japanese philosophy of clothing construction from designers like Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto, with Park having worked for the latter from 2009-2011). There were some beautiful garments here – trousers that erupted into peplums; slanting handkerchief dresses and tops; a great funnel-neck windbreaker in white and black – enlivened by Park’s clear eye for colour. This is the type of clothing one more typically sees during Paris Fashion Week, and there is a quiet power to Park’s decision to present her collections in New York – she doesn’t feel like anyone else showing in the city right now. Jack Moss
Khaite
Catherine Holstein’s latest Khaite show was a bold statement of intent. Taking place in a vast warehouse in Brooklyn’s Navy Yards (something of an odyssey from Manhattan, where most of the shows were held this season), the show featured a lengthy runway, dramatic lighting and a high-wattage cast that included Kaia Gerber in a rare runway showing (it was by far the most major casting of the week). The collection, which was one of Holstein’s best in some seasons, provided a juxtaposition of sorts to the monolithic set: here was her take on romance, albeit in her tough, twisted style. So there were billowing ruffles and pointed bra tops; corseted dresses and skirts which appeared ripped open along their backs; while other dresses were Victoriana-meets-Little House on the Prairie, cut from sheer fabric and adorned with lace and bows. Backstage, Holstein said that this season she was thinking about craft: ‘I wanted all these special moments that you didn’t even see, but once you open up the clothing, everything is finished by hand, everything,‘ she said. ‘This is a real labour of love’. Jack Moss
Ulla Johnson
Ulla Johnson chose New York’s Gotham Park to present her latest collection, a space in New York currently undergoing an act of transformation: formerly known as the Brooklyn Banks skate park, it was closed off to the public and left to disrepair in 2010, with a grassroots movement reclaiming it in 2023. Sitting in the shadow of Brooklyn Bridge on the Manhattan side, Johnson has pledged to donate 750 plants and 12 trees as part of a collaboration with Field Operations (which was responsible for landscaping the High Line), in a planting process that will begin after the show.
The collection itself looked to the ‘self-expression and self-invention’ of the New York woman, and the places like Gotham Park where they might pass one another and compliment each other’s outfits. ‘It’s this lived experience that we create every day: the act, the performance of dress, and the act of coming together with loved ones, but also with passersby,’ she said. ‘That impromptu joy that only New Yorkers understand, when somebody compliments their outfit or when there’s that unstudied interaction between strangers.’ The clothing itself was an amalgam of the ‘urban’ and ‘pastoral’ (a reflection of the show’s location), mixing up the working uniform – tailoring, trenches, mackintosh jackets, umbrellas and the like – with whimsical ruffles, floral prints and homespun accessories, like a series of shows adorned with raffia pom poms. Jack Moss
LII
Zane Li is by far one of New York’s most promising talents, a status bolstered by his win at the LVMH Prize earlier this month (he won the Karl Lagerfeld Award, which comes with a €200,000 endowment and a one-year mentorship programme from LVMH experts). Cleverly, Li’s S/S 2027 collection felt like a steady evolution of his previous collections, refining his signature look, which is defined by architectural construction (garments are cleverly folded and contorted), a vivid use of colour, and a largely minimal sensibility, which harkens back to the likes of Helmut Lang. These were all in evidence here: twisted T-shirts were worn with jutting, folded skirts; crisp nylon jackets and windbreakers came in bright orange; while clean-lined, spaghetti-strapped mini dresses hung on the body as one might dress a paper doll. Li said that one inspiration was the clothing revolution of the 1960s, viewed through his own contemporary lens. ‘We become nostalgic for periods we never experienced and recognise ourselves in people whose lives are far removed from our own,’ he said. ‘At some point, memory and imagination are blurred.’ Jack Moss
Diotima
Rachel Scott continues to show her 2020-founded label Diotima despite the weight of having had to show as creative director of Proenza Schouler earlier in the week. Although Scott, who remains one of New York’s most intriguing talents, says she is becoming more adept at separating the two labels – backstage at Proenza, she said the lines between the two are becoming more and more evident. The divide this season felt more personal: while at Proenza, she looked to the New York woman for inspiration, at Diotima she imagined a figure moving from ‘island to island’ across the Caribbean archipelago (Scott, who lives and works in New York, was born in Jamaica, with this latest collection inspired by a recent trip to Grenada).
‘This collection began with the sea. I found myself returning to it, in awe of its overwhelming beauty and power, but also thinking about all that it holds – histories of passage, displacement and unimaginable loss – and all that it connects,’ she wrote in a letter to guests. As such, garments – which hung on the body asymmetrically – appeared as if caught in waves of tightly pleated organza, while other pieces had a spectral quality, with Scott imagining a woman ‘inside the colonial plantation house’ through nods to the contours of historical silhouettes. ‘The sea just holds so much, and so I kept thinking about all these women from these different times.’ Jack Moss
Luar
When Dominican-American designer Raul Lopez relaunched his brand, Luar, in 2022, he made a commitment to provide luxury products for ‘real’ New Yorkers. Appropriately, his S/S 2027 collection was staged at a venue that’s about as New York as it gets – the Unisphere, a 140ft-tall stainless-steel globe in Queens. Lopez dubbed the collection ‘Christopher Street Columbus’ as an homage to his youth in the early-2000s, hanging out in Manhattan, and as a subversion of the legacy of Christopher Columbus, who laid claim to the Dominican Republic in 1492. For the Luar show, Lopez sought to explore the intersection of ‘the street and the empire’, as he wrote in the show notes.
The nearly 50 Luar ensembles presented, therefore, balanced both streetwear vernacular with references to historical garments from the 15th and 16th centuries, creating a collection where ‘the architecture of empire meets the architecture of the block’, the designer added. The strongest looks were where those linkages were cleverly blurred: moiré jackets cut like doublets; voluminous breeches that ballooned above thigh-high python-print boots; puffs of lace emerging from collars and cuffs; hair styled in glossy ringlets. One luxurious dark silk was printed with images of cacao pods, a colonial commodity, and appeared on scarves, a two-piece suit, and a striking halterneck gown trimmed with ostrich feathers.
The ensembles all served to reclaim the legacy of conquest and extraction, a point made especially poignant as the diverse cohort of models literally circumnavigated the globe of the Unisphere. It’s Lopez’s world, the collection seemed to say, and we’re just living in it. Anna Fixsen