At New York Fashion Week, emerging trends are disparate, with each designer doubling down on idiosyncratic brand moments hoping to cement their moment of relevance.
On Monday morning, Carolina Herrera designer Wes Gordon offered house classics to his coterie of Upper East Side clients, black and white polka dots, silken white shirts paired with high waisted black shorts and billowing full skirted gowns all punctuated with blown out rose appliqué and details - mirrored by the soft pink rose left on each guests seat.
For Stuart Vevers, Coach’s British creative head, the mood took a grungier tone. His models reflected “a gang taking American classics, reinventing them for today, personalising them, making them their own.” Scuffed trainers were strewn with high school scribbles of “Perfect ending” and “see you never”. Quirky touches came via cassette tapes and toy cars popped on top of the tongues. Out size clutch bags were strewn with whimsical stickers; some shaped as giant lips, dinosaurs, teddy bears or hearts. His thrift store ode to Americana included knitted I love NY t-shirts worn by one Ella Emhoff, Kamala Harris’s step-daughter (lead image), and fashion's reigning indie princess.
At the close of the day, Tory Burch took her version of the modern New Yorker to Brooklyn, in a high rise venue offering spectacular views of the city over the Hudson and Williamsburg bridge. Jodie Turner-Smith, Elisabeth Olsen, Michelle Williams, Maude Apatow and Ella Emhoff (having a busy evening) on the front row reflected her varied vision of the brand’s every woman.
“When I think about design I think about movement and shape and form and so many of those think about when I’m watching people do sports, the precision, the solace, the power” she said after the show.
Her sleek, assured take on sportswear fused through loosely slung track pants and racer back tops, sequin-strewed swimsuits, co-ord knit sets and jacquard tiger print flirty shifts. She also brought back her best selling house motif Reva ballet pump, the new iteration came backless with a peep toe T emblem, which offered a more louche touch. Burch’s mother, who was at the show, and a fan of the flat told her daughter that she’d “been shelved, so we brought it back to convey the essence of where we are today”. This season she also had a British edge, Alexa Chung walked in the show, “I’ve wanted to have her for a long time” laughed Burch, “she’s so brilliantly cool and beautiful inside and out.”
