Autumnal. Tory Burch AW22

February 16, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

I kind of can’t believe it, but yes – I loved a Tory Burch collection. I actually don’t remember when was the last time I even looked at her collection. Details from autumn-winter 2022 line-up sneaked into my Instagram feed, and then I browsed through the runway photos, and… it’s really great. The offering sprung from Burch’s observations of New Yorkers’ style throughout the pandemic. The freedom of expression was what she noticed – not trends, but characters. “I see women in New York taking more risks, they’re more creative with the way they put themselves together,” she said after her show. “It’s all ages, and that’s something I really appreciate.” Burch tapped into that energy for her latest collection, which she set against a backdrop of midtown Manhattan, with red light from the New Yorker Hotel sign glancing off the runway, like neon reflecting on rainy streets. The idea, she explained, “was to give women a toolbox; I want them to feel they can take this collection and create their own personality with it.” The variety was the thing. This collection had range: there were tech-knit track jackets worn with high-waisted, tapering pants and voluminous jackets and skirts reined in with dramatic belts. The designer, as many designers in New York this season, doubled down on outerwear. Sasha Pivovarova wore a wool coat on top of a hooded raincoat. Bouclé coats had drop shoulders, for easier layering. All of it skimmed out on low-heeled mules or boots, another reflection of real-life chic. There was nothing as predictable as a cocktail dress. Instead, embellished T-shirts were layered over jersey turtlenecks and Lurex-shot full skirts. Burch also paired embroidered bustiers and baggy pants in a cotton-linen shantung with day-to-night versatility. In all likelihood, it’ll be the lively colored geometric pattern jersey dresses – clingy, cut on the bias for ease – that become the collection’s big movers. For the days when the closet is too daunting, or there’s just not enough time for putting together a look, they’re a one-and-done solution for channeling a confident New York vibe.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

The Batsheva Charm. Batsheva AW22

February 15, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

“It’s big, broad, and for everything she might want to do,” says Batsheva Hay of her autumn-winter 2022 collection. Her blooming label is no longer just about timeless prairie dresses. Now she has pushed her aesthetic into housecoats, and sweatshirt skirts, and pajama sets, and quilted vests, and blouse and skirt sets, and tiny scalloped edge knits, and… well, you get it. Hay is putting her twist on almost every category, denim to debutante dresses. It might read as a commercially minded play, and, yes, more clothes means more opportunity to expand the business, but as Hay tells it, this season was really about taking all the her friends and customers have been giving her for years. “People always send me pictures of Sharon Tate’s wedding dress,” she says, “so finally I just made one.” Her take is denim with dusty rose velvet trim. For those who want body-con, there is a tight maxi dress covered in funny crochet granny squares. Simplicity seekers have asked for black: now Hay has her most streamlined, no ruffle black velvet dress with vintage ribbon trim. A gray cardigan with hand-crochet trim is a tip from Jenna Lyons, who advised Hay to just remake all her popular blouse shapes as knits. The many velvet coat-dresses, with prim bows and sweet little hoods, are Hay’s advice to herself: something cute and sweet for all weather. The glue that binds her diverse work together is her own sense of quirky weirdness. Of the grandma-style florals she says “you need something a little repulsive!” Not abandoning her weirdo sensibility while being able to expand into new realms is her great strength.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Industrial Sexy. Khaite AW22

February 15, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

Here’s the picture of what’s fashion like this New York Fashion Week: it’s either an over-the-top fantasy (Area) or a pragmatic, down-to-earth look at the re-emergence wardrobe (Proenza Schouler). Khaite is rather in the latter camp, but not entirely. Launched in 2016 as a resource for classic essentials, the ethos of the brand hasn’t changed: it’s still constructed on a foundation of cashmere sweaters, leather, denim, and tailoring. But Cate Holstein shakes up that properness lately. Last season, she dimmed the lights almost to black; for autumn-winter 2022, she channeled the glam and grit of pre-Bloomberg New York, with Kurt Cobain wailing “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” on the soundtrack. Khaite is getting edgier than it was in its early days. “It’s our most New York show,” Holstein said, “the most industrial,” and she pointed out that the freight elevator from that scene in Fatal Attraction was down the block from the show venue. Holstein built this collection with the outerwear as a priority. It started with a zip-front leather jacket, with an exaggerated collar and full sleeves. Much more leather followed: an aviator, a trench, double-breasted blazers, snap-front work shirts, and a Perfecto like Emmanuelle Seigner’s in Frantic, a movie Holstein quoted backstage. Jackets and coats sorted, the Khaite customer will need a mini for autumn. Khaite’s are shapely— – igh waisted and neatly belted, with a zip all the way down the front. Should she require a dress, she might fancy an off-the-shoulder number traced in a harlequin of Swarovski crystals, a fully fringed cocktail number that took three weeks of work to complete, or the crocheted column studded with crystals that was the collection’s showpiece. As sexy as the vibe was, Holstein achieved it without the towering spike heels we’ve seen turning up elsewhere this week. The post-pandemic stiletto comeback isn’t anywhere in sight. Holstein gets that – another notch in her favor.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Poignant. Brandon Maxwell AW22

February 14, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

I’ve never really followed Brandon Maxwell‘s work, but his autumn-winter 2022 collection seized my attention. This was Maxwell’s most personal show yet – it opened with Siri reading his Wikipedia page before cutting to a short film of spliced together family photos and video clips, many of Maxwell through the years with his grandmother, who is now suffering from Alzheimer’s. The Wikipedia page reminded us that Maxwell spent much of his youth in her Longview, Texas clothing boutique. He credits his grandmother with his passion for design. “She’s a big part of my life,” he said. “I was going back to when I was a kid: While she was cooking I’d be in the back room taking blankets and wrapping them around my sister, emptying out her jewelry box, and making my sister carry one of her bags. When we decided to do a show, I wanted to make something that if it was my last one it would be a bookend that I was proud of.” The blanket shawls, antique jewelry, and clutch bags Maxwell remembers were recurring motifs here, talismans from his youth. Fabrics felt chosen to conjure a feeling of home, too, from the crushed satin of a double lapel coat, to the oversize chenille stitch of a short belted sweater dress, to the rich brown interior textiles Maxwell used for tailoring. The flowers on Karlie Kloss’s finale dress were taken from a painting he asked his grandfather to make in his grandmother’s honor. The last couple of times Maxwell was on the runway, the mood he channeled was slicker, more glamorous. The softer, more romantic tenor of these clothes was “a way to dial into a shared frequency” between himself and his grandmother, he said. This was a poignant show, a thoughtful and heartfelt goodbye to the woman who set him on his path.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Independence. Eckhaus Latta AW22

February 13, 2022 | Design & Culture by Ed

It’s another anniversary this New York Fashion Week: Eckhaus Latta celebrates its first 10 years. It’s not that easy to define this brand in one word – it’s raw and elusive, sexy and gender-fluid, over-sized, and then all of the sudden super clingy and sensual, spontaneous, kind of minimal, but not really noting all the arty handwork the brand loves to add to their collections. When Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta arrived in New York in 2012, their label was immediately deemed “crafty” and “indie”. After a decade in business (the irony: many people still consider the brand as “emerging”), Eckhaus Latta is one of New York’s strongest standing independent labels, with two brick-and-mortar stores, an e-commerce business, and admirers from all over the world. Its anniversary show at the former Essex Market affirmed that after a decade of independence, Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta are still charting their own course in fashion. The autumn-winter 2022 show was filled with Eckhaus Latta signatures. Sheer, glittery knits were slashed open at the back; minidresses were cut on a square edge; and tailoring was slit to reveal a spine, a thigh, or a breast. Worn by the brand’s friends and collaborators, including David Moses, Hari Nef, Maryam Nassir Zadeh, Thistle Brown, and Paloma Elsesser, the collection was a summation of everything Eckhaus Latta has built. It was cool, unfussy ready-to-wear with undertones of kink, craft, and community. It still is all these things, without ever labeling itself. “We didn’t want to be nostalgic or retrospective,” said Eckhaus postshow. “But we did want to bring back the things that we loved from our early collections, the handwork especially,” added Latta. The chain-mail pieces that closed the show, graphically sliced up to be equal parts erotic and acerbic, were handmade in the brand’s atelier. It was well balanced with the label’s more affordable garments. May Eckhaus Latta’s next 10 years be about furthering the bond between its tender handwork and commercial hits.