New York Fashion Week: Highlights from the Fall-Winter 2024 runways
CNN
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Across Manhattan and Brooklyn, designers have been offering enticing twists on familiar dress codes at New York Fashion Week, which concludes Wednesday.
Inside the neoclassical Williamsburgh Savings Bank, Peter Do rethought “protective” fashion for his sophomore showing at the helm of Helmut Lang, sending out silk bubble wrap trousers, knit balaclavas emerging from smart suiting, weathered sand-colored denim and soft armor in the form of slouchy puffer jackets.
Soon after, in Rockefeller Center, models pumping gourd barbells showcased Collina Strada’s delightfully femme take on sports uniforms and gymwear, wearing “elegantly beefed-up silhouettes” — per the show notes — that included lace-trimmed boxing shorts and voluminous jackets mimicking bulging deltoids and biceps.
Then there were the designers updating American dress codes more broadly, whether in their own contexts or anew. Tommy Hilfiger’s return to the runway — attended by the brand’s ambassador Sofia Richie Grange, among other celebrities, and ushered in with an opening performance by Jon Batiste — showcased new takes on prep classics that the brand itself established in the 1990s, with boxy tweed coats, varsity jackets, cashmere dresses and long, bulky scarves.
And Willy Chavarria, who previously held a top spot at Calvin Klein in addition to running his own namesake label, brought a bold vision of American power dressing to the runway through layers and structure, with exaggerated shoulders, sharp lapels and sweeping coats offset by ruffles and sculptural florals, all with Chicano-influenced flair. Chavarria’s runway show was accompanied by a fashion film presentation, with a rich, frenetic visual narrative which spoke to community as a respite from the world’s ills.
Like Chavarria, designer Prabal Gurung also took inspiration from community and family, mining his childhood diaries and heritage to create looks — which were richly colored in hues of saffron and vermillion, and embellished with crystals and gold embroidery — that paid tribute to his father’s family in Nepal.
In one of the week’s most anticipated shows, Paris-based designer Ludovic de Saint Sernin made his New York debut with an enchanting collection inspired by the once-taboo photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe, progressing from applique florals and wispy transparent fabrics to shimmering crystal mesh gowns to full-on leather bondage styles.
De Saint Sernin’s designs have often rewritten gendered dress codes, and he told CNN that his clothes show how “the evolution and competence you can gain with your gender and your identity is an exploration that you do your whole life.”
Scroll down to see this season’s runway highlights, which will be updated throughout the week.
