Living forms at Proenza Schouler and a show by Christian Cowan at the top of the World Trade Center kicked off New York Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2022 last Friday, with the calendar still jostled by absentees and the Covid.
The Proenza Schouler brand, which after a few years has become a New York classic, kicked off in an art gallery in Manhattan’s East Village, The Brant Foundation.
Like the space chosen for the parade, intimate but under an immense height of ceiling, the creators Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez above all played on the forms, while the places were filled with music a little disturbing played by a violin quintet.
Cinched, even compressed waists, on full skirts or with slightly rounded effects, the shapes were contrasting, sometimes exaggerated, an attempt to answer “to this obsession with the body nowadays. With social networks everyone wants to show their body“, says Lazaro Hernandez. Buttoned sleeves, drawn shoulders, a black velvet hooded top giving the famous model Bella Hadid a little air of “Catwoman”, “play and experimentation are key, perhaps today more than ever”claims Proenza.
“We just won’t have a full collection in time”
In the process, Christian Cowan, who has already dressed Lady Gaga, Cardi B or Lil Nas X, took to the skies, presenting his collection on the One World Trade Center observatory.
From the 102nd floor of the skyscraper, painted pink on the brand’s social media accounts, the show in a nightclub atmosphere confirmed the British designer’s taste for glamor and glitter.
Despite the restrictions due to the pandemic and an Omicron variant which upset the preparation of the event, several brands and their creators have decided to maintain a physical show, such as Michael Kors, Altuzarra, Tory Burch, Brandon Maxwell or Telfar, according to the official calendar.
But Tom Ford, who himself chairs the American fashion union (CFDA) and was due to conclude the edition next Wednesday, was forced to give up at the end of January, due to an increase in Covid cases in his teams.
“We have done everything we can to avoid canceling our show in New York, but unfortunately we are faced with the fact that we simply won’t have a full collection in time.“, he had declared.
emerging brands
For his part, Thom Browne is well on the calendar, but on April 29. He explained that he wanted to get closer to the opening of the second act of the major retrospective on American fashion at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met). An institution whose curator, Andrew Bolton, is his companion.
For several years, New York has also had to deal with absentees, who choose to parade elsewhere or turn away from the classic calendar and criticisms of the frantic pace of fashion. For this edition again, no Christopher John Rogers, elected “women’s” designer of the year 2021 by the CFDA, nor Pyer Moss, the brand founded by Kerby Jean-Raymond.
Once again, the opportunity is therefore given to emerging or barely nascent brands to make their debut, most often for presentations and not too expensive parades. This will be the case, for example, of Melke or Dauphinette, which promote sustainable and ethical fashion.
Emma Gage, 26, who founded Melke during the pandemic, isn’t choosy. For her, being on the Fashion Week calendar, “it really comforts you as someone who is going to be around for a long time“. “It’s very rewarding to realize that people will see my work and think it deserves to be alongside brands that have had great success.“, she explained to AFP, in her small studio in Bushwick, a district of Brooklyn.
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