What Does “New York Fashion Week is Dead” Really Mean?
Hearing “NYFW is dead” is a bummer to me. Not as much as hearing “rock music is dead” massively bums me out… but it’s up there.
Please, correct me if there is another way of looking at it. But to me, not only does murmuring “NYFW is dead” under an eye-roll overlook incredible works of sartorial arts that were presented last week, but it boils the beating heart of fashion week down to either prestige or exclusivity or some intangible combination of the two. (Or… good parties?) The bottom line is this: if New York Fashion Week is dead, what then, might I ask, was the essence of New York Fashion Week when you considered it ‘alive’?
Let’s look at what it seems (from my admittedly limited yet powerfully curious observation from the “outside”) was different about fashion week this season: First, people are quick to point out the legacy brands aren’t showing quite as much with ‘New York Fashion Week’ the brand– though some still had shows with hyper-exclusive, start-studded guestlists in the city over the week. A lot of the others have shifted to present collections in Paris or London I guess? Anyhow, the second thing is that New York Fashion Week (again, the brand) has built up a schedule that’s more inclusive to the public outside the ‘fashion industry’. Evidently, that’s a big deal. At which point I would just suggest: if your interest in something relies upon the condition that other people can’t access it, maybe you should question the reason behind that interest…
Perhaps that’s a bit reductive though— there’s an argument here that as fashion weeks extend invites beyond industry professionals, the quality of the craft and “focus on the fashion” are sacrificed. But the thing is, no person is uninvolved with the fashion industry– we are all players in the game. ‘Influencing’ in particular has become a real, effective ingredient in the merchandising and brand identity pieces of the industry. In my head, this is no different than when the blogging wave of the early 2000s. Customers looked to those people for guidance that felt perhaps closer, less hierarchical than glossy fashion mags. So yes, brands are smart to offer people that experience of their newly released work to share across their powerful and highly trusted platforms.
On the flip side of that note of influencers, though… these are oftentimes the same people we hear calling fashion week dead. This I just don’t get. Dead because you didn’t have a good time? Moot. Moving on…
Back to the “legacy”, “namesake”, and “heritage houses” thing. This is the real thing, and with all due respect to those houses and their history— is it true that people are so hooked by the buzz of getting an invite to a big-name show that they don’t realize they could be watching the next it-brand come to life or the next controversial collection that could create cultural waves? (Pause to gasp for air post ranty run-on). What if you could go back in time and see Marc Jacobs’ grunge collection for Perry Ellis? Or one of Aabloh’s pre-LVMH Off-White shows? Or something from the beginning of Rei Kawakubo’s career? To be a fly on the wall when Schiaparelli presented her surrealism to the world? This could go on, but truly… knowing what you know now, what wouldn’t you give to watch one of these now “great” designers show their early, controversial work before it was deemed “great”?!?
May I gently suggest another point of reflection: if we only have a taste for art established as tasteful and fed to us as “luxury”, how do we know anything about our taste at all?
I think I’m done, or at least ready for a break. And on a note that makes me feel good here are some things that happened last week that were super inspiring…
PH5’s presented their first NYFW runway show. The collection featured their signature trippy hemlines and pops of color, introducing an organized-chaos layering mimicking piles of fabric. The show– complete with an artistic touch of sculptural backpacks that looked like my bedroom floor (piles of laundry, admittedly)-- was an ode to garment workers. The window into garment factories on the runaway in this beautiful way was refreshing. I hope it starts a sort of trend of letting some visibility of production into these shiny presentations. Beautiful.
2. I adore what Hillary Taymour does with Colina Strada season after season. There is a consistent throughline, as the brand has distinct playful maximalism through collections and is wonderful about repurposing. For this one, that practice of repurposing from past collections extended beyond fabric into aesthetic conception with the help of AI. Though Collina Strada is marked by youth and whimsy, the small brand’s ability to be at the forefront of the industry should be taken seriously. As AI creeps its way into industries, it was nice (and interestingly in a post-apocalyptic way) to see the tool manifested here with some really cool draping, unique silhouettes, and interesting juxtapositions of hard and soft. Taymour described the inspiration of “Soft is Hard” saying in the face of a world and human rights under threat, “we summon the strength of radical softness.” Beautiful.
3. The Dauphinette’s in the details!! Another lovely local brand. As they grow in popularity, designer Olivia Chen continues to infuse Dauphinette garments with time, detail, and creativity in a way I find so inspiring. The pieces she sent down the runway for Dauphinette’s SS24 collection are truly artworks. Including: a lampshade dress made from vintage beading and over 3,000 googly eyes. Hand-beaded garments with rosaries applied to deadstock cashmere. An elaborately embellished 80’s wedding dress. A dress made of vintage matchbooks from a flea market. One garment coated in hand-sewn vintage beads and knick-knacks rattled as it walked down the runway. Absolutely beautiful.
