The thermometer might have swung well into the minus figures and stayed there for most of the week, but inside the mansions, museums, galleries, and warehouses that were taken over by the best of NYFW’s designers, there was enough fab fashion to take your mind off the fact you could no longer feel your toes.
Across a six-day stretch that set the AW25 womenswear season in motion, the likes of Luar, Sandy Liang, Collina Strada, and Eckhaus Latta all debuted what they’d been working on for the past six months, while new kids on the block including Gabe Gordon and Jane Wade got glowing reviews for their first slots on the CFDA’s official schedule.
Also dropping a new collection was Coach, with Brit abroad Stuart Vevers continuing to pen his love letter to the USA through a swathe of youthful, Americana-inspired clothes. If you weren’t shuffling up Park Avenue trying to avoid big mounds of grey, sludgy snow, don’t worry – we’ve rounded up everything you need to know.
Typically a place where you’re more likely to spot hoity-toity mega-rich women dripping in furs and carrying Birkins trotting between luxury stores than crowds of screaming fans waiting for their fave celebs and the fashion crowd, Vevers took us to the Upper East Side for AW25. There, he invited us into his old haunt, former Coach show venue the Park Avenue Armoury, with its dark panelled wood walls and golden Art Deco orb lights offering a bit of warmth to guests traipsing in out of the snow. Inside, attendees assembled around a space set up for a group of musicians.
Vevers is originally from the UK, though he’s been living in New York for what’s getting close to two decades. Seemingly, while he’s still utterly in the grip of a love affair with his adopted city – as is blatantly obviously in a big swathe of his recent collections and his plentiful ‘I PinkPantheress to squeeze in next to them (see her Dazed Fashion takeover here). Joining them from the US, meanwhile, was rapper JT, who slipped into a leather dress matched with a dinosaur-shaped purse. Why not?
Gone but never forgotten! The legendary director, who died last month, has been on the minds of many designers (Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons, for example, who paid tribute to him at the AW25 Prada show by using music from his movies as the season’s soundtrack). Vevers also wanted to show love to David Lynch, and so enlisted Brooklyn indie-pop group Nation of Language to pick up their instruments in the middle of the showspace and play a haunting track as the models wade their way around the catwalk.
Backstage, Vevers told us he’d had photos of New York skate kids taken by Larry Clark stuck on his moodboard this season. The designer has long been influenced by what he sees on the streets, and seems to have a real knack for knowing what the next generation want to wear – as evidenced by Coach’s current winning streak. He also explained that the key to his success is “listening to what Gen Z wants to wear”. What does he hear back? “They really want to be able to express themselves,” he explained, nodding to the return of personal style over the constant churn of trends.
The big statement slogan tees and things like mugs hanging from bags were stripped back for AW25, with the collection feeling a lot more sleazy than last season, when models got their legs out in mini shorts matched with oversized blazers. This time around, the palette darkened to a swathe of black, beige, rust, and nude, punctuated by little pops of bolshy neon, as seen in the collection’s poppy sunglasses.
Models like Alex Consani pulled on wide-legged jeans patched together using scraps of denim in contrasting shades, and slipped narrow-shouldered, nipped-waist charcoal dress coats over the top, their tails blowing out behind them as they walked. In fact, big trousers and a little top were a huge mood for Vevers, as runway proportions continue to shift on the runway. Other louche trouser styles came with shrunken leather bombers up top, with models stuffing their hands awkwardly in the pockets like they were about to start an indie sleaze band in 2004.
Next came sweet little diaphanous slip dresses with dropped waists in hues of sugared almond, some dotted with bows and crystal embellishment. But even these had been scuzzed up in the styling process, and were worn over baggy, battered jeans. Rounding things off were playful accessories that didn’t overpower, like furry footwear in the shape of puppies – a kind of new version of those novelty slippers you used to ask for every Christmas, even though you definitely tripped down the stairs in them endlessly – and cute little charm earrings and keyrings.
Post-show, Vevers emphasised the importance of political fashion, but in amongst all that there is still room for escapism and having fun with the clothes you choose to wear, citing his kids’ toy box as the inspiration behind many of the collection’s more avant-garde accoutrements. It’s all about striking a balance, and Vevers seems to have found the sweet spot.
