a week of freezing temperatures, paparazzi harassment and increased Uber calls, New York Fashion Week is the industry’s high point for each season, an Oscars or Grammys-type affair for the stylistically inclined.
But whereas an award show assesses its winners in a quantitative measure with rankings or statuette prizes, the pre-show red carpet evaluates in a more qualitative degree, assessing which looks are most cogent or stimulating in the overall picture.
This season’s New York Fashion Week has taken upon the grading system of the latter. No longer praising the collections we thought were simply best, it instead recognizes the designers who proved most efficacious or causative to the system of fashion week as an entity.
Now, more than ever, we’re focused on the future of fashion by questioning a variety of variables that might constitute how the industry will run in coming seasons. These questions are less about the clothes themselves and more about the overall process: how do we want to fashion our fashion?
In search of answers, New York designers have spent the past week experimenting with new venues, presentations, online experiences and retail timelines, all turning this season into a sartorial sound board to test run every possibility.
With their experiments, the week became a race toward what we might expect for the future of fashion week, each new day begging the same question: how should labels showcase their collections, involve clients and pace production, all to serve both a brand’s creative processes and also the public’s fast-paced thirst of consumerism?
Now that each designer has submitted his answer and shown his collection, it’s time to choose which of them is best.
We started off Thursday with the show heard round the world, Kanye West’s Yeezy Season 3.
While West’s participation in the fashion industry has sparked mixed reviews, Yeezy performed as the most elaborate investigation in how we choose to experience fashion.
Predominantly, West tampered with fashion’s environment by opting out of the typical SoHo gallery or loft for the 18,200 seats of Madison Square Garden, a considerable upgrade more appropriate to a concert than a fashion show.
But it was clear West’s collection wasn’t just a show, it was an event complete with a 21-foot-tall Jumbotron, more than 1,200 cast models and a two-hour time length that ran several times over the average designer show.
Yes, the experience was one to remember, but attendees were too busy spying on the Kardashian clan’s presidential box or trying to get on the Jumbotron to even notice the clothes. In all, Yeezy Season 3 argued the spectacle eclipsed the work, a slightly terrifying thought if used as the answer to the industry’s future.
Next came Rihanna’s design debut with Fenty x Puma, a collection of supposed athleisure that resonated as hip-hop counterculture mixed with a myriad of tricked-out footwear.
But more than the clothes, Rihanna tapped into the question of fame and fashion’s dependency on a celebrity force.
The rise of social media-centered models like Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner has already recognized the importance of an Instagram following (Hadid and Jenner have 62.5 million followers between their accounts).
As brands transition to mobile platforms and audiences, they’ve learned hiring a model who doubles as a celebrity utilizes that fame factor but doesn’t sacrifice the sartorial element of a look.
Puma reversed this formula, collaborating with Rihanna and her following and then transitioning her as a celebrity into a fashion career.
This time, the experiment worked and produced a show of interesting value, but celebrity stand-ins still may be a questionable long-term solution.
Sunday’s shows brought around many new voices, each offering a different view on the fashion week conundrum.
Victoria Beckham was the traditionalist, both in style and presentation.
Her models sported modernized corsets and bustiers in the standard Beckham houndstooth and tartan prints. She also continued in her theme of outerwear in a variety of weights and moods that were all well-received.
The show itself was much in the same style, appropriately set at the exquisite Cipriani 25 Broadway with a standard runway setup. And in the first row, her family (of course dressed in a matching color scheme) all sat in supportive duty.
J. Crew was the teacher of the bunch, giving a lesson in the creative and unexpected layering techniques we can all steal for next fall.
The collection mixed sophisticated pajama sets, cheetah print jackets and cotton candy knits, all in a playful whimsy that is often missing from the New York gravity.
The schooling sensation came from the lack of runway, instead J. Crew showcased models on one platform at the same time. This staging made it easier to appreciate each design but also seemed to squarely look at attendees, saying, “Now you go.”
The party animal was most definitely Diane von Furstenberg, who instructed her models to just dance. Many clad in contemporary disco attire, the models did just that and threw one of the most lavish and well-dressed house parties one could imagine.
Alternatively, Tommy Hilfiger created romance by constructing a lavish ship in the middle of the stage with the earned name T.H. Atlantic. The clothes that followed mirrored this sense of nautical make-believe and drafted a fashion week meant for the fanciful and illusioned.
Many more voices were heard with many more hopes for fashion’s future, and it’s important to assess all that we’ve seen, from Kanye’s concerto to DVF’s disco.
And ultimately, out of the many submissions, one clear theme can be determined: we’re not ready to have a winner because the future of fashion still has a long way to go.
No designer has caught on completely and no brand is entirely off the mark, but all have a clear amount of transition ahead and all show that they are open to the industry’s unknown possibility.
Whatever identity that becomes, here’s looking toward next week’s collections.
bsaggese@indiana.edu
