Taking place from today to September 13, New York Fashion Week 2023 started promising. The night before, the warm-up began with the Coach parade. Held at the Celeste Bartos Forum of the New York Public Library, while the parade captured the young look, the scenery helped to counter this in a more ornate way. The parade reinvented the classic with a modern language, with leather, lace and transparent knitwear, resignifying the sleepwear in part of the nightly festive scene of the city. During the parade, two PETA protesters entered the catwalk. One held a poster saying “Coach: Leather Kills”, and the other came up with a body painting, revealing muscles and tendons, thus making the tension at the beginning of the fashion weeks pertinent. While Copenhagen Week banned the use of exotic skins in productions, the protest follows as a warning regarding the use of one of the most consumed materials in the industr
At another pre-launch event on Wednesday, with Naomi Campbell, Doja Cat, Naomi Osaka and Gigi Hadid, the iconic lingerie brand Victoria’s Secret presented a film aimed at showing the brand’s new and more inclusive identity, after it was criticized for designing clothes that objectify women. The film, titled “The Victoria’s Secret World Tour”, will be released on Amazon Prime at the end of September and highlights the work of creators and artists from Lagos, London, Bogotá and Tokyo.
Today, the viral brand, Bad Binch Tongtong, presented a collection out of this world for its first appearance at New York Fashion Week. Models paraded with alien prostheses on their heads, along with the latest creations of Terrance Zhou. Combining drama with the absurd, the theatrical story captivated the audience who gave a standing ovation, the surrealist designer who has already dressed celebrities such as Kris Jenner, Sabrina Sato and Jennifer Coolidge.
On the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Helmut Lang, who came to fame in the 1990s and 2000s, thanks to his minimalist aesthetics, returns to the catwalks with a collection designed by his new artistic director, Peter Do, considered a prodigy in the fashion world. The show bowed to the 1990s, when it became the first fashion brand to advertise in New York’s famous yellow taxis. But Do did something even more audacious. “Everything you see here, all the forms are from scratch,” he says that he did not visit the brand’s files, and thus made a readaptation of the clothes in his own way. “I feel there is something so uncomplicated, direct and honest about the clothes that Helmut made, and this is something that is missing. It’s really about reintroducing the brand to a new generation of people who don’t know who Helmut Lang is, and also to ignite this love for his ethos and the way he designed it.”
In Brooklyn, the legendary Ralph Lauren, who defined American elegance, returns living up to her fame. In a breathtaking parade, New York returns to the golden times – literally, by the great presence of the tone – referencing the boho-nocturnal luxury of the 60s/70s, the color of champagne and the feminine essence that stood out in the bright and fervent urban atmosphere.
The catwalk became even brighter with the presence of the supermodels Vlada Roslyakova, Christy Turlington, Natalia Vodianova and Magdalena Frackowiak. In addition to dresses, blazers, pants and skirts, with black, gold and another vibrants colours such as purple and blue. Crystal beading, floral threading, and hand-embroidery, gold-leaf artistry, was part of a Art Deco glamour which composed the scenario that even referred to recent fashion shows.
In a garden full of sunflowers, also in Brooklyn, Jazelle opened the Collina Strada parade, next to Alva Clare, Hari Nef and Aaron Rose Phillip. Corsets over skirts, different textures, satin dresses, ruffles and lace pants, as well as worn t-shirts and velvet flowers add a little contrast. To the sound of “All The Things She Said”, the brand adhered to its tried and true ethereal and playful aesthetic, while models exposed wide smiles.
New York Fashion Week 2023, “How do you decolonize our taste, our eyes, what we love, what we think is cool, what do we think?”, this is the question that Prabal Gurung made us reach. Known for colors, the collection also embraced a more neutral footprint, emphasizing materiality and technique. “In culture, there is so much talk about the East finding the West, but it’s time for the West to find the East,” he says. “I’ve always loved the collection of ideas, of continents, of gender.” Incorporating traditional oriental elements, the designer used simple fabrics, such as linen, to build costumes reimagined in the contemporary. The collection incorporates fitted tops with pants, mid-calf hems and square jackets.
The brand led by Brazilian Marcelo Gaia, Mirror Palais, presented its parade at the American Irish Association, where its retro aesthetic matched entirely with the show at New York Fashion Week 2023. Wooden walls, vintage paintings and chandeliers are all accessories that any Mirror Palais girl would like to have in her apartment. Claiming the femininity of a bygone era, the arsenal of fabrics in the collection featured a foamy tulle, luxurious satin, as well as lace and velvet chokers, delivering a collection full of juxtapositions, emphasizing that bows and ruffles can also be sexy.