To receive the Vogue Business newsletter, sign up here.
On the surface, New York Fashion Week appears to be regaining its mojo as the pandemic-era disruptions recede into history. Ralph Lauren returned for the first time since September 2019. Coach celebrated 10 years of designer Stuart Vevers with a swanky dinner. Yawning calendar gaps disappeared from the schedule. Seating at shows is crowded.
Yet despite the energy and crowds, there’s little breakthrough on the global scale. London sees itself as the hotbed for emerging creative talent. Milan and Paris are the big leagues. Where does that leave New York?
The event still feels like an underdog, wagging its tail hopefully even as some of its most promising labels, including Peter Do this season and The Row as of 2015, turn away to Paris. The chairman of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and one of America’s most celebrated designers, Thom Browne, is missing from this week’s calendar. A spokesman says Browne will return to New York next year after last showing at haute couture in Paris. Which begs the question: is NYFW just a launchpad to bigger ponds?
New York had a moment in the 1990s as a central force when Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Diane von Furstenberg and Ralph Lauren put American fashion front and centre around the world. When Helmut Lang moved his show to September, and the rest of NYFW followed, it became the kickoff city of the big four — a week that uniquely celebrated the American lifestyle.
All of those designers were lauded for creating clothes that embraced the very real lifestyles of the women and men who bought them. Karan and von Furstenberg revolutionised women’s wear for working women. Helmut Lang’s very wearable clothes — those Chesterfield jackets — are so beloved that some fans had a crisis this week when Peter Do debuted a collection for the Fast Retailing-owned label that they felt didn’t sufficiently plumb its late designer’s codes.
The game has changed today. European luxury giants wield massive budgets and multifaceted business strategies that direct their designers to produce fantastical collections for marketing more than for profit. They reap the high-margin profits of cosmetics and accessories. So-called editorial looks that feed fashion publishers and drive clicks are replete on Paris runways. Yet they tell stories that are often barely relevant to real lives of consumers.
That’s what NYFW, where ready-to-wear is the core product, is up against. It’s a reputation challenge, particularly when it comes to foreign press. At one time, New York’s big shows had entire sections devoted to foreign press. This season, fewer than two dozen foreign publications are covering New York, according to publicists who have been wrangling them. One observer noted that’s nonetheless more than have come to New York in the past several seasons.
Should New York’s crowd of small to mid-sized fashion labels try to compete for drama? They are one of the week’s strengths. NYFW is chockablock with emerging and surviving brands that, unlike European mega brands, don’t control their means of distribution, so they’re punching above their weight in business ingenuity, which is, after all, what America is known for.
The week is certainly the epicentre for new American talent like Keith Herron, the 22-year-old designer of Advisry, whose emerging label was one of the week’s most discussed. “We’ll see on sales how the show pays off. In terms of buzz, it’s been brilliant,” Herron said. “If you’re an American designer, I definitely think New York is where you should be. I don’t know why everyone is running to Paris when there’s so much talent here, and for me, it’s an open canvas since everyone does want to move on to Paris, New York is my playground. I came here [from California] for a reason.”
In terms of design, it can feel as though New York is interpreting the last season’s trends from Paris — and that’s often true. But those six months of digestion serve consumers as well as the American labels that are focussing on selling clothes that real people want to wear.
“I just want to make people look the best version of themselves. It should be easy,” said Jeffrey Kalinsky a few minutes before he narrated his collection for Theory. Kalinsky may be the epitome of the American approach to fashion: A canny former retailer whose Jeffrey boutique in Manhattan’s Meatpacking district was a must-shop for fashion lovers, he is now both creative director and chief merchandiser for Theory.
One of the primary reasons a dozen designers this week said they show in New York isn’t the business opportunity or exposure it provides, but that they love New York. For now.
Joseph Altuzarra is an NYFW darling and French American who was raised partly in Paris and showed there for a stint starting in 2017. Asked on Monday if he ever considers showing in another place, he hesitated. “Not for now,” Altuzarra said cheerfully after showing a collection inspired by the Roman Polanski horror film Rosemary’s Baby. “I love it here!”
There are plenty of examples of American designers taking their shows to Paris and quickly returning. Zac Posen did that in 2010 and famously returned with his tail between his legs. Altuzarra tried it seven years later. For a lot of designers, New York is their safety choice — better than nothing.
Before his presentation in the Bard Room at the Hotel Chelsea, designer Jonathan Cohen explained why he took several years off before returning this season to NYFW. “Staying away for a few years gave me some perspective,” Cohen said. He took production to Italy, built his custom business to 20 per cent of sales, and opened a New York pop-up store that was intended to last six weeks and instead stayed for a year, says his co-founder and business partner Sarah Leff. But it was time for more.
“We just wanted to be part of the conversation again,” Leff said.
It often seems that New York undervalues some of its best talent because their approach isn’t dramatic or editorial enough to go viral on social media and get picked up by the press.
Tory Burch has never been nominated for a CFDA Designer of the Year award (she did win Accessories Designer in 2007). Yet she has built one of America’s most powerful fashion brands, with an estimated $2 billion in annual revenues and 376 stores. Burch draws star power. On Monday night, Tiffany Haddish, Suki Waterhouse, Uma Thurman, Naomi Watts and Huma Abedin were among the celebrities cheering as one of the week’s more intriguing collections passed in front of them. That tailoring could artfully dress presidents and chairwomen of the board, and saucer-shaped minidresses will dress fashion-loving socialites.
As excitement builds every season around buzzy New York labels, it remains true that the city has a talent retention problem with no clear plan to fix it. “Why would an American brand want to show anywhere else?” asked Johnny Schwartz, designer of LA-based YONY — a very American-sportswear look menswear line, which showed at the Town Tennis Club on the Upper East Side.
Tory Burch, who has had enough success that she could show when and where she pleases, is resolute about her relationship with New York. After her show on Wednesday evening at the Gilder Center for Science, Education and Innovation at the Museum of Natural History, Burch said she has never considered showing elsewhere and never will.
“I prefer to show here because I love New York,” she said, setting her jaw firmly. “I’m sure about it.”
Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com.
More from this author:
Behind a new Barneys collab, Forever 21 is quietly reinventing itself
Is leather the new fur? Protestors crash Coach show during NYFW
