Among the fashion weeks most popular with fashion professionals, each plays its part. London nurtures young, mind-blowing creation, Milan a certain heritage classicism, Paris a mix of overpowered houses and the international avant-garde. On the other hand, defining the flavor of New York fashion week is a challenge as its program destabilizes and its absentees are noticeable. This season, Tom Ford and Marc Jacobs give no news, while Ralph Lauren will wait until March to unveil his collection and Thom Browne April.
Willy-nilly, some fifty brands presented their women’s fall-winter 2022-2023 collection from February 11 to 16. “Hundreds of people around the world help make these collections possible. This passion and resilience is worth celebrating,” pleads Wes Gordon, the artistic director of Carolina Herrera. In an attempt to regain vigor, New York fashion week tries several recipes.
Back to the past
To flirt with a globalized public, the use of recognizable figures or silhouettes of the greatest number always works. At Coach, we immediately recognize the grunge look popularized by Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, in oversized t-shirts, floral dresses or plush prints on depressed-looking models with peroxide hair. “I like the idea of creating an American-style nostalgic world,” explains creator Stuart Vevers in his note of intent.
From the same decade of the 1990s and the two preceding ones, Tory Burch draws on the attitude of American women “who dress by taking risks, with a lot of freedom and spontaneity”, summarizes the one that used as inspiration images of Bill Cunningham (1929-2016), legend of street photography. These various shots make it possible to imagine a variety of profiles. “Women who can wear a structured blazer with jeans or a jersey turtleneck under an evening dress. » She explores, in the same vein, the pleated pants and track jacket combo in a show that took place on a remix of Pull up to the Bumper by Grace Jones (1981), covered by the sound of New York taxi horns, like those that punctuated the episodes of Sex and the City.
Elsewhere, others rewind time even further. Like Jason Wu, who goes back to the 1950s for dresses with bows or tulle, and Joseph Altuzarra, who fell back into the Roaring Twenties. He borrows their decadent air from them, with references to Moby Dick. Results ? Fun aquatic pieces: marinière, outfits or dresses with sequins like the scales of a mermaid, psyche prints like the seabed…
Active woman, I love you
New York has a reputation for never losing sight of the commercial dimension of fashion. Well aware that they mainly need to appeal to an active woman endowed with a comfortable purchasing power, the designers are multiplying the proposals around a bourgeois silhouette.
Peter Do was the critics’ favorite this season. Formerly at Celine (Phoebe Philo period), he delivered, in 36 silhouettes, the minimalist panoply of a woman with an impeccable wardrobe who manages to impose without too much rigidity. Woolen coats enlarged, suits made fluid, sometimes belted, stretched lapels, exposed seams, tote bags in which to slip folders, baby stuffed animals and vitamins.
Both Proenza Schouler and Gabriela Hearst offer serious company director double-breasted suits, but made fluid, interspersed with flowing dresses in the former, Bolivian crochet in the latter. Michael Kors draws, meanwhile, the archetypes of the bourgeois to the first degree: the camel coat, the fur, the crocodile effect, and of course, the logo bag.
At Carolina Herrera, Wes Gordon aims more for evening outfits by multiplying his usual taffeta dresses, often printed with flowers, designed to parade in a cocktail party on the Upper East Side. “I thought of the sixties and seventies and figures like Sharon Tate or Jacqueline de Ribes, familiar heroines of Carolina Herrera and cheeky, courageous. » It deploys embellishments, drapes, embroidery, as in a American dream from another time. “Herrera remains one of the few New York houses to have its workshop in the city, made up of around fifty designers, he recalls. My mission is therefore to highlight their know-how. Reason why every dress should be, for me, an exclamation mark. »
Holograms and metaverses
Finally, more confidential labels have tried to get noticed by embracing digital and technological innovations. Imitation of Christ attempted the exercise – in vain – of the entirely digital collection, drawn on software, while two creators had the same idea: to show their fall-winter 2022-2023 vintage in the form of holograms.
For this, Maisie Wilen has signed a partnership with Yahoo, whose technology has enabled it to project holograms (two meters high) of its models in tight-fitting suits or silky suits into a gallery. Similarly, the unisex streetwear of Tommy Bogo de Tombogo, made of cargo pants, camper jackets and cozy hoodies, appeared in holograms in a hotel in Manhattan, projected thanks to a partnership with the specialized company PORTL. “I chose this hybrid format because it seemed to me to be a perfect precipitate of the time, between physical and digital”, justifies Tommy Bogo. And a good opportunity to get noticed at a time when fashion only seems to have the word “metaverse” in its mouth…
