There was a time in the early 2000s when New York felt like the white-hot epicenter of fashion. The internet had smashed the doors of the fashion industry, making the once-rare runways accessible. While European fashion capitals resisted democratization, New York City embraced it: front-row celebrities, reality TV, popular designer collaborations, bloggers (sort of), tents! It was sophisticated and glamorous, if a little drab.
Like everything else, New York Fashion Week has since splintered, fragmented, and struggled to find its direction. As the European luxury market expands and products become more expensive, commercialism seems to be the only driving force. But here in New York, it feels like the opposite is true.
For new and independent brands, building a business and turning a profit is an uphill battle, as the fashion industry’s traditional infrastructure isn’t well-suited to support emerging talent. This season, we see a dogged determination from established and emerging brands alike — a reckless confidence that’s uniquely New York, forged in the city’s brutal hustle and bustle.
And it’s the perfect time for brands to lean in. According to McKinsey’s report, “The State of Fashion 2024,” brands need to move away from performance marketing and focus on cultivating a personal, emotional connection with customers.
Willy Chavarria Open Gallery Fall 2024
Two designers who work in their own way but also understand how to scale are Willy Chavarria and Hillary Taymor of Collina Strada. Chavarria is a much-needed star in the city, bringing American Ivy Prep to those who were shut out. The way he cuts loose, billowy wool houndstooth trousers and peak-shouldered double-breasted jackets opens up a world of possibility for those who have felt excluded from fashion in the historically white supremacist world of Americana. In Willy Chavarria’s America, clothes are born from reality; they are filtered through the easily digestible lens of fantasy and spat out the other side, landing somewhere between perverse and practical.
Collina Strada Autumn/Winter 2024 Gallery Open
Taymor, on the other hand, is always up for a laugh. This season’s collection cleverly plays with the idea of female strength, from minidresses with padded biceps and shoulders to models wearing psychedelic-print shorts and holding pumpkin-shaped dumbbells instead of weights. As always, Taymor’s cast is a mix of friends and family, one woman with a baby on her hip, another in her belly. The designer never compromises on her vision and commitment to sustainability. She sticks to her guns and has yet to raise outside capital for her brand, which is stocked by a range of retailers from Nordstrom to ESSENCE.
Eckhaus Latta Autumn/Winter 2024 Collection Gallery Open
Taymor, Chavarria, and Lure’s Raul Lopez, who shows tomorrow, are at the forefront when it comes to bringing the underground into the arena. So is Eckhaus Latta, whose collections continue to subvert the tedium of sportswear. In the label’s sexy world, pencil skirts are slashed and paired with jackets with faux-fur collars. Patchwork knits are made to look slightly unraveled, a slightly disheveled adult look that has escaped the confines of Dimes Square to become its creative director. Eckhaus Latta evolves every season, but it never lets go of the craft and eccentricity that first launched the brand.
Open Proenza Schouler Fall 2024 Collection Gallery
New York designers like Proenza Schouler and Altuzarra, now firmly established as designers, are more confident than ever, especially this season. At Proenza Schouler, Jack McCollough and Lázaro Hernández have rediscovered their style. After a standout show last season and the debut of a new monogram logo, the designers are reinforcing the codes that made them wunderkinds of American fashion in 2002. For fall, outerwear is prominent, with sturdy but slightly off-kilter necklines and hoods. It’s the kind of coat that would have made you nauseous in a Barneys New York sale back in the day, but is perfectly fine now. The knitwear is also current, with a detached, deconstructed feel that sets the wearer apart from the women in quietly luxurious cosplay.
Altuzarra Fall 2024 Gallery Opening
The same could be said for Joseph Altuzarra’s 15th anniversary collection, which he showed in salon style to a smaller-than-usual audience and focused on a decidedly Altuzarra-esque wardrobe. The clothes, which referenced dance and equestrianism, had a 1940s orientation that recalled, as a former colleague pointed out, “the mother I never had but always wanted.” It was chic without being direct, like jodhpurs and riding shorts paired with clown-collared ruffled blouses and longline covered-button overcoats. A yellow toggle coat, with poet sleeves and a pillbox-style hat, went beyond the realm of classicism. It felt deeply personal, as if Altuzarra was returning to his core memories after years of experimentation.
Courtesy of Pratt Manhattan Gallery
“The New Village: 10 Years of New York Fashion”
Beyond the runway collections, Pratt Institute’s Manhattan Gallery is hosting a new exhibition called “New Village: A Decade of New York Fashion.” Currently on view through March 16, the exhibition looks back at 20 designers (including Telfar, SC103, Vaquera, Lure, Elena Velez, and Echoes Latta) who have played a key role in the development of fashion over the past decade. As curator Matthew Lind wrote in the show’s catalog, the exhibition “does not focus on the complexities of American fashion identity; rather, it reaffirms the lost role of artistic pioneers in fashion.” In other words, these are the designers who have given New York Fashion Week its enduring edge. Like some of the collections shown this week and the designers who produced them, the group in the exhibition embodies a true dedication to personal passion and craft, not just a ruthless, relentless dedication to commerce.
It’s fitting that Marc Jacobs started showing on February 2, earlier than the official calendar. To mark his 40th anniversary, he presented a collection that was very personal and seductive. It’s the kind of New York fashion magic that seems to be disappearing from the city. I keep thinking about what Stef Yotka, head of content at Ssense, said about Jacobs’ collection. Referring to the oversized, puffed silhouettes and bulky embellishments, she said she thought it was about “property weighing on us all.” If these final few days of New York Fashion Week have taught us anything, it’s that there is real value in the pursuit of authenticity. Forget the noise, forget the prescribed formulas of storytelling and narrative-based design. Just be yourself and the fandom, and maybe even luck, will follow. It may be hard to get here, but the most interesting designers keep going. With so much potential, why would you want to make it anywhere else?
Brooke Bobb is the Fashion News Director at Harper’s Bazaar, covering both print and digital publications. Previously, she was Senior Content Editor at Amazon Fashion and worked as a Senior Fashion News Writer at Vogue Runway.
