Celebrities arrive at shows in Maybachs and Rolls-Royces, donning the most absurd outfits their stylists can put together and still call fashionable. Designer houses empty their pockets to create runways that seem more appropriate for a Hollywood movie set than a fashion show. The squinted eyes of fashion critics and journalists watch behind oversized and overpriced sunglasses for the looks that may trickle down into the plebian everyday style, and all we see are pixelated moments from the Instagram stories of influencers and Vogue collection recaps. Step back to look at New York Fashion Week as a whole, and it may seem that we’ve created the precursor to The Capitol from The Hunger Games. It’s fantastic.
NYFW is one of the biggest fashion events in the United States, and it’s gone through some changes in recent years. Let’s take a look back at NYFW 2024 to see what happened, and where we’re headed.
Historically, the gravitational pull of NYFW has brought in a long list of LVMH-style legacy brands, but this year, that list seemed to be cut short. Starting on Sept. 4 and ending on Sept. 11, this year’s NYFW lacked some big name brands.
European titans like Balenciaga, Chanel and Louis Vuitton opted to show their spring/summer 2025 collections at Paris Fashion Week instead. This reflects a shift toward exclusivity (as if the fashion world wasn’t already exclusive enough) that big name brands have recently pursued.
It might be more appropriate to call it a preservation effort rather than a shift. Paris Fashion Week upholds that tradition of exclusivity and rigidity, while New York Fashion Week seems to be breaking away.
Ralph Lauren exemplifies this diversion with their SS25 collection not being included on the official NYFW schedule. This is despite the brand’s place in the American fashion zeitgeist and their guest list including heavy hitting names beyond the fashion world like Jill Biden, Jude Law and Tom Hiddleston.
The brand also chose to host the show in Bridgehampton, New York, rather than New York City, with a well done, if not a bit uninspired, collection of equestrian and Americana-influenced looks.
Whites and blues headed the collection, and both mens and womens pieces shared formal tailored silhouettes that look right at home in the Hamptons, with the womenswear also getting some elegant mesh dresses.
Eckhaus Latta, (which was actually included on the official schedule) further deviated from what you might expect a NYFW show to be. Guests of the show were told to attend wearing Eckhaus Latta pieces, and in the Tribeca loft, where the runway should have been, there were only two long tables that turned a supposed fashion show into a dinner party.
Only after the music played did the guests realize that they were to walk the path between the tables and act as the models. Its SS25 collection is full of muted colors, knitwear and the clean modern cuts that are to be expected from the house. Their presentation of guests acting as models let these pieces speak for themselves.
The fashion world is changing quickly, and its once heavily guarded floodgates have been weakened by the internet. Brands can livestream runway shows, aspiring designers can connect with their kin on other sides of the world in a few taps via social media, and the infinite niches of personal style that are born of endless microtrends leave room for an equally infinite number of designers to fill them.
This year’s show featuring VAIN, an up-and-coming Finish brand, was one of my favorites at NYFW.Vain’s first collection debuted in 2023, coming from the chrome-dipped wires of the web. The show notes for it’s SS25 collection recognizes this origin, saying, “The brand’s DNA is deeply rooted in music and internet culture.” It’s easy to see this influence in the clothes.
The color palette is dominated by reds, whites and blacks that feel industrial, but when paired with the brand’s constant “<3” motif, feel just a little softer. The looks feel like they come from a hybrid fantasy world that combines the character creation menu of “Skate 3” with Rick Deckard’s wardrobe from “Blade Runner,” and it works perfectly.
The fashion industry is changing, and NYFW is changing with it. Will we see it continue to veer off the course that Paris Fashion Week is glued to?Or will it snap back into the mold it has always known? As to which outcome would be better or worse, we can’t be sure. What we can be sure about is that even though it looked a bit different this year, NYFW remains as important as ever.