Fashion Week is here yet again. In New York, where it always begins, the tenor is authentic and hopeful.
Maryam Nassir Zadeh showed off a fascination for obscure references. This season, it was a focus on a towel to start. Its warmth and comfort somehow felt new but also familiar. In theory, it might not work but on the runway, it proved how the brand is always going to be that cool other labels only dream of achieving.
At Gabriela Hearst, it was all about doing away with traditional ideas. “Kids want to be free. For them, gender is an imposition,” Hearst said in a preview.
There were overlaps in gender norms for this collection with a play on colors and cashmeres. Silks also interplayed with masculine silhouettes. It was an ode to texture with botanical dyes and sportswear wool. Amber Valletta closed the show to mark Heart’s pulse on the zeitgeist a bit before the beat becomes mainstream.
For Khaite, sexy isn’t limited to stilettos. It’s refreshing because not everyone is ready to climb into them given our past two years. Sexy for the brand is the laid-back effortlessness. It’s about owning up to who you really are, without the artifice of celebrity.
Khaite manages to fly under the radar while commanding a 140 people waitlist for a 1,200 dollar coat. Perhaps that’s because the brand is all about essentials the are reliable through seasons. It’s about a time before Instagram. It’s about being secure from within without the acknowledgment of the many. Something the likes of Kendall Jenner, whose been spoted in Khaite, strive in their level of celebrity.
In contrast to outfits for Lady Gaga, or perhaps to even compliment her range of influences, Brandon Maxwell delivers. But he’s more than the red-carpet glamour. This collection showed a personal, traditional side to his designer. It was a collection inspired heavily by his grandmother.
Sweet dresses that spoke of Sunday brunches, delicate pleating, but also impeccable taste were what graced Maxwell’s Fall/Winter 2022 collection. Karlie Kloss closed the show in a dress that featured a painting Maxwell’s grandfather made for the desinger’s grandmother.
