American fashion loves a trend with a catchy name — “quiet luxury”, say, or “Barbiecore”. But at New York Fashion Week, the buzziest phrase backstage was simply “real clothes”, as designers embraced fashion that women might consider a safe investment in unpredictable times.
In the US, the post-Covid luxury shopping bump — and the daring sense of dressing it brought with it — has abated. LVMH, Kering and most of their peers have reported slowdowns in the region this year, as shoppers become cautious. Mass-market retailers such as Uniqlo make fantastic wardrobe staples for a great price, after all.
How can independent American designers compete? New York’s collections often get a bad rap for being overly commercial or derived from their peers in Europe, where designers have more resources and support. And where, to be fair, an embrace of “real clothes” has recently influenced the runways.
But American designers have their own relationship with pragmatism. Many have made a business out of resilience, fighting to survive amid the dominance of the French conglomerates by hewing close to their customers. This season in New York, there were few standout moments, but also less posturing.
“I wonder whether [with] shows now, brands are less concerned about, what are editors going to think or what are editors going to shoot? And more thinking about, is this speaking to my customer?” said designer Joseph Altuzarra, describing a new freedom that underpinned the aesthetic shift in his latest collection of oversized satin coats and wispy slip dresses. Fashion week no longer feels like a competition, he said. For many, it’s not even a requirement.
“We’re not trying to make evening gala dresses and tuxedos,” said Mike Eckhaus, after Eckhaus Latta’s latest show staged in the lobby of Rockefeller Center, a venue chosen to signal a grown-up sensibility. He and Zoe Latta refined their gender-fluid uniform of interesting and sexy staples, such as pieced-together T-shirts and wide-leg trousers, and shifted more of their experimental energy into new production methods, including 3D-knit trousers.
“You’re seeing consumers really gravitate to more elevated, more sophisticated casual,’’ said Ralph Lauren’s chief executive Patrice Louvet last Friday night, when the brand returned to New York Fashion Week for the first time since 2019.
Ralph Lauren’s now annual shows are some of its most important marketing initiatives, designed to tell aspirational stories of glamour and wealth and, in turn, help increase prices. The celebrities who surround the brand’s fashion shows and populate its suite at the US Open tennis championship, and are usually styled head to toe in Ralph Lauren, are key to its strategy.
Quiet luxury may be the “heart of this company”, as Louvet explained, but it wasn’t visible in this latest collection of jewel-toned gowns and embellished denim. Not that it matters. The excess was effective, especially in a city where such elaborate productions are few and far between.
Helmut Lang hosted the most highly anticipated show of the week, marking the debut collection of its latest creative director, Peter Do. The 32-year-old designer, who began his career working under Phoebe Philo at Celine, has been received rapturously by the industry since 2018, when he launched his namesake line of sharp, smart suits with attitude and versatility to spare.
For Helmut Lang, now owned by Uniqlo parent Fast Retailing, he offered something very different, much to the dismay of those who wanted Do to channel Lang’s legacy as an inimitable innovator of the new American uniform. Do presented a solid collection of boxy blazers and languid trousers, some trimmed with bright satin ribbons across the chest or down the legs, as well as soft button-down shirts and low-slung dark wash denim that will be easy to wear.
Do said he was thinking less about industry expectations and more about his potential customers. “I want Helmut to be a destination — solutions for wardrobing for great values, pieces that will last a lifetime but don’t break your mortgage,” he said. But the pomp and circumstance of the show indicated Do wants his work at Helmut Lang to move the industry forward, too. Otherwise, why do a fashion show at all?
Do might have benefited from waiting a season or two before staging a runway show, much in the way Stuart Vevers did 10 years ago when he arrived at Coach with a challenging mandate to recast the handbag brand as a luxury contender. Vevers marked his anniversary with a coolly confident collection of oversized leather blazers and flirty slip dresses inspired by New York dressing of the late 1990s, followed by a dinner inside the city’s landmark Beaux-Arts library. Vevers has pulled off what so many American brands are trying to do: using the runway to elevate the perception of them as luxury names.
Certainly, that’s the aim at Michael Kors, a brand that has made progress but is still struggling to push further upmarket. But none of that context was apparent when its magnetic namesake designer hosted his latest show along the picture-perfect Williamsburg waterfront. He presented semi-sheer Chantilly lace dresses and slim handbags, designed to pack easily for holidays.
“These are expensive clothes, these are expensive handbags . . . so it has to perform, but it also has to give you joy,” Kors said in a preview before the show, where he sidestepped questions about the brand’s recent acquisition by Coach’s parent company Tapestry, due to complete next year. Kors was more interested in talking about his clients.
Clients are also top of mind for Wes Gordon, the creative director at Puig’s Carolina Herrera, a brand that specialises in eveningwear for bold women. But increasingly, Gordon finds himself subverting dress codes, offering the silhouette of a gown in cotton shirting, for example. “I want my girlfriends to watch the show and be like, ‘I want to wear that,” he said.
A similar ambition guided Proenza Schouler this season. “We wanted a lightness, a transparency, a diaphanousness,” said Lazaro Hernandez backstage. He and fellow founder Jack McCollough felt “in the zone this week in a way we haven’t been in a long time”. They nailed their goal, presenting an unfussy collection of bleached jeans and sleek jackets that were as versatile as they were appealing.
At Sergio Hudson’s latest show, the audience was full of customers who weren’t shy about their approval of his latest collection of body-conscious shift dresses and brightly coloured tailoring. Private clients are a major part of his business. “I don’t really think about it in the way that some people do, where they just see the clothes,” he said. “I see a woman who’s going to buy this.”
Later in the week, inside the modernist caverns of the American Museum of Natural History’s new Gilder Center, Tory Burch charmed with a collection of jersey hoop mini dresses and a coat covered in a chain mail of tiny bells.
“In a chaotic world, I wanted a bit of calm, but I didn’t want minimalism,” Burch said. Since she stepped down from her role as chief executive to focus on design, her brand has regained favour among the fashion set for its quality and clever details. “Women are investing in pieces that they want to keep,” she said.
Is Khaite the next Tory Burch? The brand has cultivated a loyal audience of Manhattan women who want striking pieces without relying on the obvious alternatives. The brand, founded by designer Catherine Holstein, landed a minority investment from venture capital firm Stripes this year. Holstein has passed the chief executive role to Brigitte Kleine, who was president of Tory Burch for more than a decade until 2016. “She’s kind of a legend, to be totally honest,” said Holstein. “It’s a dream come true.”
This season, Holstein was thinking about the toughness women need to survive in New York. But the stark drama of the show’s production seemed out of step with the way her fans style her jeans and flouncy tops in real life. Her pieces seem to have a versatility that proves her customers see the clothing not as armour but as beloved staples.
Meanwhile, backstage before her latest show, Gabriela Hearst spoke about the history of ancient Druids with the charisma of someone who seems like she could easily start her own religion. “One of the most sensorial pieces of garment that I’ve ever worn,” she said of a deceptively complex silk jersey knit top and skirt set covered in tiny glass beads.
Paul Helbers, creative director of the new-ish label Fforme, is another designer obsessed with sensorial garments. The French designer, who has a stacked résumé (Louis Vuitton, The Row), is inspired by what he sees as a very American tradition of minimalism. “Fforme is really about clothes that are simple, but very intricately made,” he explained. On the runway, his “shape studies” came alive, revealing how the cut of a sleeve replicates the crook of an elbow, or how the pleats of a dress move with the body. The result could be repetitive at times but was mostly refreshingly direct — words that could also apply to the state of American fashion.
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