The Council of Fashion Designers of America, Inc. schedule ran from Feb. 9 to Feb. 14, with 97 brands and designers presenting 49 runway events, 23 presentations, seven digital shows and 17 appointment-only collections.
Many official events were held at the Starrett-Lehigh Building on 11th Avenue and 26th Street, which started hosting New York Fashion Week this season after the shows outgrew their previous home at Spring Studios in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood.
This season’s mood was a clear extension of spring-summer 2024, with color trends such as red, white and black continuing to dominate, and suiting looks maintaining their hold on fashion’s consciousness. However, something new also began to emerge, as some designers played with proportions, embellishments and nostalgia, while others went even further, showing dresses made with petticoats, hoop skirts and fabric flames. Flats came back, Mary Janes showed up on every gender, and miniskirts were also making their presence known again.
This season also marked the return of Tommy Hilfiger, who came back to show in New York, while Ralph Lauren took another hiatus from the city. Puppets and Puppets showed its last collection before designer Carly Mark heads to London to focus on handbags.
Meanwhile, the shows themselves are becoming more publicly accessible, and not just because well-heeled fashion fans can buy tickets to the once-exclusive events. E-commerce platform Rakuten returned to NYFW for a second time after last season’s "Wear the Runway" event with 3.1 Phillip Lim, Altuzarra and Rebecca Minkoff. This time, Rakuten partnered with designers Prabal Gurung, Sergio Hudson, Patricia Bonaldi of PatBO and Rachel Scott of Diotima to offer customers early shopping access to runway looks. The shopping platform also worked with retailers including Bergdorf Goodman, COS and Neiman Marcus on a second "Wear the Runway" event. Additionally, Phillip Lim opened his presentation to the public the day after releasing it to the industry.
All in all, it was a frenzied week of official events, off-calendar presentations, designer debuts, parties, eclectic streetstyle and even a brief snowstorm. While it’s sometimes hard to tease out the overarching themes from the noise, both buyers and brands continue to use the runways as a barometer for where fashion is right now and where it’s going.
Here are some of the standout trends.
Extra tailored
Suits started coming when Covid-19 restrictions began to lift and back-to-office mandates started popping up. But for fall-winter 2024, designers took a decidedly playful approach to tailored dressing.
Prabal Gurung featured prominent shoulder pads and jackets that turned into extra-long scarves, which was a huge trend for the shows, while both Sergio Hudson and Retrofête showed off a 1980s-meets-mob wife aesthetic with colorful, body-hugging suits and dresses straight out of the movie “Working Girl.”
In Brooklyn, Willy Chavarria, 2023’s American Menswear Designer of the Year presented a genderfluid show titled “Safe From Harm” that opened with a film before diving into a full of billowy jogger pants and ultra-wide trousers, and pieces were paired with gold necklaces, patent leather flats and veiled hats. Some of the styles may show up again on musician Billie Eilish, who has made Chavarria a staple of her awards show wardrobe.
Meanwhile, Thom Browne played with proportions as he closed out NYFW week. In his Edgar Allan Poe-themed show, the designer presented dramatic black and white suits and ties with flowing coattails alongside roomy overcoats and modestly tailored bubble dresses, plus a gigantic puffer coat centerpiece from under which small, uniformed school children emerged.
Ultra feminine
If last year was all about Barbiecore and balletcore, expect the coming year to be all that and much much more.
On the streets, showgoers were sporting tiny stuffed animals on their keychains and massive teddy bear backpacks, while inside the shows designers were adding ruffles, ribbons and bows to clothes for every gender. Chavarria brought out pussy bow blouses and ruffled jackets, while a party skirt at Coach was made entirely out of one giant pink bow. Tory Burch celebrated her line’s 20th anniversary by showing ruffled minidresses and miniskirts with sheer striped knee socks and Sandy Liang celebrated her label's 10-year anniversary with tiny handbags, little headscarves, A-line miniskirts and outfits adorned with fabric flowers and bows in a show inspired by the cartoon character Sailor Moon.
At Melke, a presentation inspired by Wallace and Gromit offered up bows on gowns, minidresses and tied into models’ hair, while at Carolina Herrera, creative director Wes Gordon turned up the volume on the label’s signature feminine flair with enormous shoulder bows, multi-tiered pink ruffle layers, floral prints and actual hoop skirts.
Vintage chic
Throwback silhouettes with beaded and embellished details, plus mismatched, bright patterns and textures and a nod toward handmade knitwear, extra-long scarves and fabulous furs in fluffy faux made the runways feel like designers had raided their parents’ and grandparents’ closets.
Ultra-high, ruffled Victorian-esque necklines were popular at Ulla Johnson and Altuzarra, while Libertine showed quirky Peggy Guggenheim-inspired prints and oversized and stylized sunglasses. Marc Jacobs showed outlandishly oversized paper doll-inspired 1960s suiting and dresses that looked both cartoonish and modern, while Michael Kors showed 1990s-era slip dresses with lace insets, 1950s-style leopard prints and pencil skirt suits, thrifted-looking lopsided fur coat collars and old-school glam sequined dresses.
Accessories sealed the vibe, with small and structured top-handled handbags on several runways including Michael Kors, Tory Burch, Khaite, Ludovic De Saint Sernin and Sandy Liang. Headwear also had a big moment, with headscarves at Sandy Liang and Angel for Fashion’s Ukrainian designer presentation, plus turban-esque hats at Altuzarra. Grounding everything were pointy but practical flats and sweet Mary Janes as seen at Ulla Johnson, Altuzarra, Coach, Chavarria, Gabriela Hearst and Carolina Herrara.
Comfy Cozy
Perhaps it’s because of the upcoming U.S. election, or lingering economic fears, or continued concerns about Covid, but the fall-winter 2024 shows offered up lots of soft, wrapped and draped ways to stay safe and warm.
Knitwear, always a seasonal staple, got extra long and felt homemade in the best possible way. Scarves were striped and floor-grazing and were paired with matching oversized sweaters and delightfully droopy sweater pants at Zankov, while Hilfiger’s preppy collection also featured big sweaters, oversized shirts and tweed blazers and long chunky-knit scarves, all with a heavy American collegiate spin.
At Helmut Lang, Peter Do’s sophomore collection took cozy a step further into protective gear, with bubble wrap pants and balaclavas, while Jason Wu showed off-the-shoulder sweater gowns and swathed his models in generously proportioned security blanket-like knits. Khaite also showed shoulder-baring knits, which were paired with long opera gloves, and coats cut so large they’d be easy to wear over a thick sweater.
At Proenza Schouler, designers Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez showed a black, white and red collection of soft, face-framing cowls, padded hoods, fluffy furs and sheer underlayers. There were also loosely draped dresses, cropped poncho wraps, and in contrast to the season’s popular tiny handbags, there were a few capacious totes big enough to hold an extra cardigan or some flat shoes for the subway.
Pure fantasy
While most of the clothes were refreshingly realistic for everyday (or every evening) wear, there were also fantastical flights of fancy throughout the week that revealed what happens when designers let their wild imaginations loose.
Baby, The Stars Shine Bright, a Japanese clothing company that embraces Lolita fashion, showed an Alice In Wonderland-themed collection full of brand’s signature ruffled Victorian petticoats and bows, while Collina Strada showed a pumped up collection of gym clothing complete with tops puffed up to resemble muscular arms, gym shorts finished with lace and vegetable-themed dumbbells.
At Kim Shui’s show, the Lunar New Year’s Eve show featured clothes inspired by mythical creatures, while The Blonds offered up clothes embellished with fabric flames and fire shooting out of them at all angles. Christian Siriano showed an apocalyptic glam show inspired by the idea of evening wear from the movie “Dune” and fellow Project Runway winner Bishme Cromartie made his NYFW debut with a fantasy eveningwear collection inspired by cartoons and the movie “The Matrix.”
Finally, Area turned trends and timelines upside down by showing a spring-summer 2024 see-now, buy-now collection while almost everyone else showed fall. There was an emphasis on the “see-now” aspect, too, with black-and-white clothes covered in googly eye sequins and mirrored-rhinestone embellished denim. There were also ruffled flowers on leg warmers, shoes, bags and separates, a head-to-toe tent-like cape, and tiny cutouts on everything. Keen observers will also note that Taylor Swift has been wearing Area jeans for a while now, and the pair she wore to the Super Bowl swiftly sold out.
