Libertine & PH5 Show in an Elizabeth Street Garden Threatened by Demolition for NYFW
By Calli Ferguson
After a nearly 200 year history as a public space, Nolita’s beautiful and beloved Elizabeth Street Garden is at risk of being demolished by the city as soon as this month. (If you’d like to help, you can send a letter to Mayor Adams to preserve the garden or donate here).
Though the garden has long been a gathering space for artistic and cultural events, the brands that chose the flowered paths as their runway this season offered a contemplation on our city, our planet, and our relationship to the natural world that struck a chord given the charged context of time and place.
Libertine’s Spring Summer 25 collection was titled “Hoping It’s Not Too Late.”
Many designers showing at NYFW seem to be tapping into nature’s inspiration, which is something to unpack another time but in any case, feels hopeful. And hopefully… not too late. For Libertine, the object of hope was a bit more specific: our beloved Elizabeth Street Garden.
They walked to Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” which is really, I felt, what officially nudged the show into heart-string-pulling territory.
libertine SS25 Ready To Wear c/o Vogue Runway
The song itself is a quintessential hymn of peaceful environmental protest, marked by the quirky, folksy, and hands-on sound of Mitchell’s music which was at times aesthetically reflected in the collection itself. A closeness to both nature and craft was notable in the story of Libertine’s runway. Symbols of gardening more litterally were implored through both prints and props.
Libertine SS25 RTW c/o Vogue Runway
Another show highlight was the maximalist coral reef looks. One accented by a cropped blazer unapologetically embellished with beading and sequins in true Libertine fashion.
Then there were the bright, painterly cityscape prints used to open the show. Prints were playfully styled on top of one another. And it almost speaks to a representation of the vibrance of New York City. The whole thing, as it came together, reminded me of how Patti Smith put it in her own advocacy for the garden. “Our great city is in danger of becoming a developer’s unchecked haven,” she wrote last month, “and we look to you to help us set a lasting precedent for how New York City will protect public art and green spaces for the future.”
Joni Mitchell was a part of Greenwich Village’s folk scene for a time in the 60s, playing in venues that have since become apartment buildings. She wrote her famous song on a trip to Hawaii, confronted with worries of overdevelopment. Lyrics like “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone,” “They took all the trees, put ‘em in a tree museum/ And they charged the people a dollar and a half just to see ‘em,” and “You pave paradise, and put up a parking lot” hit a little different in the context of holding on tightly to the last strings of a sacred green haven among the concrete jungle.
Leading the final walk, Johnson Hartig, the brand’s creative director participated in the protest, leading the finale walk with a sign that said “Save The Garden.”
Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell 1970 Canadian vinyl
Libertine RTW SS 25 c/o Vogue Runway
Like watching a lover ride off in a big yellow taxi, sometimes the value of something is lost on us until it’s lost to us. In this context, “Hoping It’s Not Too Late” begs to save something, the garden a strong metaphor and literal subject, before it’s too late to get it back.
But Libertine was not the only fashion brand to show at the garden this season. Adding its name to a list of big name collections to have found inspiration in the garden was local sustainable brand, PH5. This is one that I have been consistently looking forward to, and their bright, playful, and always interesting Sprig 25 collection that matched elements of structure and fluidity did not disappoint.
PH5 SS 25 Ready To Wear c/o Vogue RunwayPH5 SS 25 Ready To Wear c/o Vogue Runway
The brand always plays with its signature unique hemlines in wavey asymmetrical patterns and is also known for its sustainable (seriously) materials– most notably zero-waste knits. Adding to how PH5 exemplifies what sustainability and advocacy can truly look like in fashion, they also offset production by planting a tree for every garment produced.
In a less pointed, less “save the garden” on a picket sign kind of way, the PH5 collection felt extremely at home in Elizabeth Street Garden. And with their innovative approaches and creative practices, at the real root of the collection's creation, PH5 is able to say a lot to the subject by saying very little. In fact, Wei Lin and Zoe Champion were inspired for this collection by less outright forms of advocating for sustainability and honoring the environment through lifestyle practices. Gardening itself is actually proposed as a form of peaceful environmental activism, as are forms of craft and slow fashion which were reflected in cool knit elements throughout the collection.
PH5 SS 25 Ready To Wear c/o Vogue Runway
PH5 SS 25 Ready To Wear c/o Vogue Runway
The looks that came down the garden pathway were expressive yet functional. Models gripped handfuls of flowers seeming to have just been weeded. Some prints referenced Lake Titicaca. trompe l’oeil buttons and wildflowers and gardening tools peeking out of pockets. Gardening gloves and hats were even styled with the funky pieces.
It seemed to be a piece of environmentally active art through admiration of natural beauty and closeness to nature within or personal and community spaces. And in that way, what better setting than a community garden?
What we have is two beautiful collections to find beauty and inspiration in the setting of Elizabeth Street Garden this season. One, an ode to the tender, slow, personal ways we can be advocates for our environments just by living in gratitude for our place and taking time for slow creative practices. In that way, I’d say PH5 took my heart between the two– particularly with such visually rich, unique, and poetic looks that came from the collection coupled with the fact that they truly walk the walk in the brand’s own sustainability practices.
But it’s not lost that the beauty took place in a threatened slice of paradise. If you know Elizabeth Street Garden, you know its magic. Genuinely, it’s deep in the soil. And sometimes you need the reminder before it’s too late, of what you’ve got before it’s gone. If Elizabeth Street Garden is to be saved, maybe it is with the help of art. A lovely, iconic, melancholy tune, a display of creative manifestation, and the gathering of community around it all. Certainly community.
