Yellow cabs and urban looks at Helmut Lang, rustic woodwork and ranch vibes at the Ralph Lauren show: New York Fashion Week kicked off on Friday in an atmosphere of contrasts that makes it so diverse.
With a dozen shows per day up to and including Wednesday, New York opens the spring/summer 2024 fashion weeks, ahead of London and the popular fashion weeks in Milan and Paris. The official lineup features a host of young talent and emerging brands alongside established names and a handful of heavyweights, including Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors, 3.1 Phillip Lim, Altuzarra, Gabriela Hearst, Carolina Herrera and Tory Burch. The great diversity allows New York to remain “a cornerstone” of fashion, according to Steven Kolb, CEO of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA).
Peter Do makes his debut with Helmut Lang
In the humid heat, fashionistas lined up at the entrance to a glass building on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the early afternoon to witness Helmut Lang’s return to the calendar. The brand was the talk of New York Fashion Week in the 1990s and 2000s thanks to the minimalist and then-innovative aesthetic of its founder, the eponymous Austrian designer. The namesake retired from the fashion industry in 2005.
Today Helmut Lang is part of the Japanese fashion giant Fast Retailing, which also owns Uniqlo. The collection, designed by one of the young talents of the New York scene, the Vietnamese-born designer Peter Do (32), inherited the founder’s legacy. Black jacket and pants ensembles are worn loosely, although punctuated by almost fluorescent pink or gold stripes on the legs, belt and shoulder strap. Peter Do reinterprets the basics, like a denim jumpsuit with rolled-up sleeves and an open collar. There was also a reference to the yellow taxis in New York, on whose neon lights Helmut Lang placed his name as an advertising medium in the late 1990s – a first for a fashion designer.
“I really want to anchor and dress New York,” emphasized Peter Do, summing up the show with two words often associated with the city: “chaotic and energetic.”
Ralph Lauren shows glamor and country life
At Ralph Lauren, a symbol of preppy style and the epitome of American ready-to-wear, the atmosphere was much more intimate, with a rustic barn decor reminiscent of his Colorado ranch. Denim is also a trademark for Lauren. This time the material was reinvented as “romantic evening wear,” embellished with beads and embroidered feathers or as a full skirt ending in a floral train.
With colorful, elegant and sophisticated outfits, the Bronx-born designer wanted to “celebrate a woman who is timeless and modern, bold and romantic, sophisticated and vibrant,” as he writes in his collection note.
With model Christy Turlington on the runway and actresses Robin Wright and Amanda Seyfried in attendance, the show ended with gold dresses, including one with fringes, that Lauren said required “over 800 hours of work from fifteen specialized embroiderers.”
This season Fashion Week takes place against the backdrop of a double strike by Hollywood writers and actors for better pay. The strike has reduced the number of red carpets used for premieres to a minimum, meaning brands have lost the opportunity to dress the stars and let the world know about it.
But that doesn’t worry the director of the CFDA. “The red carpet is certainly a way to address the audience,” says Kolb. But the runway shows and content shared by brands on social media will “contribute to a very loud, very visible fashion week,” he added. (AFP)
This post has been translated and edited from English.