New York Fashion Week F/W 2015

Despite the frigid conditions and harsh arctic winds sending wind chills to twenty below, fashion week goes on. It's a good thing turtlenecks are back (and cross body stoles)! What else is trending at fashion week this season? Hat hair, stompy boots, and—at least at fashion label Opening Ceremony—throwback fashion references to the 1990s. Their collection featured unseen Spike Jonze photographs from that time period as well as "slouch trousers, skater belts, excellent layering and a Kodak-moment colour palette."  

Meanwhile, Tommy Hilfiger constructed a football field for his catwalk and put leather football jersey dresses on his models, which was sure to please New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who was in the audience. Diane von Furstenberg (her company is across the street from us so we feel a special connection) titled her collection "Seduction" and had "elements that ranged from the boardroom to the bedroom in a veritable blizzard of offerings." Designer Thom Browne staged a funeral show featuring a white-clad corpse laid out on a gurney and models in all black. Iconic fashion house Oscar de la Renta, which is dealing with the loss of their founder last year, have their first show under successor and new Creative Director Peter Copping.

In the creative world of fashion, diversity and new talent is always a good thing, which is why The New York Times was right to discuss fashion's racial disparity. And also good to see Asian-born talent on the catwalk as well as Navajo designer Jolonzo Guy Goldtooth. In another win for diversity, Italian label FTL MODA enlisted a group of disabled models including those in wheelchairs as well as amputees for their catwalk, following Jamie Brewer's historic walk during the Carrie Hammer "Role Models Not Runway Models" show as the first woman with Down syndrome to walk at New York Fashion Week. And then there was Yeezus.

New York Fashion Week S/S 2015

Alexander Wang "nudged his active-wear aesthetic from hip to haute" resulting in "a few really lovely floor-length silk satin T-shirt dresses" while Altuzarra had a "finale of flowing handkerchief dresses with deep V-necks in impressionist flower prints, the edges trimmed in pearls, that was unexpected." Instead of a traditional runway show, Opening Ceremony had a one-act play called 100% Lost Cotton by Spike Jonze and Jonah Hill that featured the spring ready-to-wear collection while actresses Dree Hemingway and Elle Fanning "conducted an ongoing dialogue about how awful the modeling industry can be."

"I feel pressure to try to--not reinvent--but for our brand to move on, to keep it moving forward," says Vera Wang. To deal with this pressure, she likes to retreat to her private office, a “haven-slash-disco-slash-mental hospital” with orchids arranged by her Feng Shui expert and a crystal from her psychic to bring "love and peace" to her life. Meanwhile, Diane von Furstenberg, whose S/S 2015 collection made use of the black and white gingham checks trending this year, says in her memoir excerpted in Vogue: "Youth is wonderful; it’s exciting because it is the beginning of life. But it is essential to learn from the past and look into the future without resentment."

Writer and museum director Olivier Saillard talks about his show Models Never Talk, which had its world premier during fashion week. Elle captures fashion week street style. Comedian Abbi Crutchfield went to Lincoln Center in a SpongeBob suit. Vogue is live. And: shoe porn.

"Fashion week is chaos," says stylist and blogger Natalie Joos. Also: "I think Fashion week is just an excuse in general to have a party."

F/W 2014 London, Milan, and Paris

British Vogue captures London Fashion Week's "excitement, colour and fabulous style" in a six minute film featuring Tom Ford, Erdem, and Alice Temperley, among many others. Fashionista looks at the ten top trends from London, including a "new crop of London collections that were so unapologetically good at being bad, we couldn’t help but take notice. Oil-slick finishes, cobwebby crochets, and hardcore studs were totally unstoppable." Plus "the season’s breakout must-have, the slip dress[.]"

In Milan "Roberto Cavalli transformed the Cavalli woman into a scorching goddess of strength and fantasy" which means of course that the models walked around a ring of fire. Dazed has the other highlights: drones over the Fendi catwalk, Miuccia Prada's sensual layers, and a magical forest created by Dolce & Gabbana. 

Valentino in Paris was "calf-length skirts, handkerchief hems, knee-length boots, Little Red Riding Hood capes, crazy coats, skirts’n’sweaters, polo-necks, blanket coats, sensible handbags." Also Rihanna. Lots of Rihanna.

New York F/W Fashion Week Report

Twice a year, in February and September, New York City hosts Fashion Week: an eight-day long fashion extravaganza. According to The New York Times, New York Fashion Week presents approximately 320 shows and hauls in over $860 million for the City (more than the US Open, the marathon, or Super Bowl). Fashion Week is the culmination of months of work for not only designers, but also for many other artists and contributors, including supremely talented producers, hairstylists, makeup artists, nail artists, fashion stylists, set designers, DJs, and models, all helping to make these shows works of art. We always love an invite to a show whether for our clients or designers we admire. For buyers and editors the shows mark the beginning of their work for the next season, but luckily for us we can sit back and enjoy the shows solely for their fashion and artistic merits.

I attended two shows: the Jill Stuart show, held in the Tents at Lincoln Center, and the Marc Jacobs show at the Armory. I also watched MADE Fashion Week at Milk Studios from afar (okay, from our offices across the street).

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