Cathy Horyn is the overall fashion critic for The Cut. Before joining The Cut in 2015, she was a fashion critic for The New York Times (the second person to hold the title) from 1999 to 2014.
From the left: Area, Carolina Herrera and Coach.
Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Courtesy of Area, Carolina Herrera, Trainer
Fashion Week, which concludes on Wednesday night, has established two big themes this season: Either you come dressed for a function or you don’t wear anything. Or maybe just a bath towel. Maryam Nassir Zadeh closed her show with a girl in a white plush dress. This was after Zadeh had paraded her daughters down the sidewalk of Forsyth Street on the Lower East Side and onto the handball courts of Grand Street. Many of her tops consisted of a piece of cloth. One model was carrying what looked like two souvenir cotton coasters, scalloped and embroidered, tied together with a cord. The bottom half of Zadeh’s outfits, if she could call them that, weren’t much more substantial.
A colleague of mine complained that Zadeh was in a “style arms race,” meaning she was trying to make a provocative statement with her combination and shapes. I don’t give him that much credit. This was a lazy effort. Watching the show, I got the feeling that Zadeh had been somewhere warm and heavenly this summer. Skimpy tops and cover-ups suggested a beach. But what does that mean on the gritty edge of Chinatown? I loved that some guys shooting hoops next door didn’t bother to move to watch. And another thing: it was obvious that some of Zadeh’s fabrics were precious to her, as they looked vintage, and her press releases referred to items being “reworked”. But perhaps it would be truer to say that she had endowed them with a preciousness that her general effort did not justify. And that was annoying.
Maryam Nassir Zadeh
Photo: Madison Voelkel/ Courtesy of Maryam Nassir Zadeh
Fans of Area, Piotrek Panszczyk’s label, which went on display at the old Whitney Museum later Monday, know how to turn heads. As I stepped out onto the sidewalk, a heavily made-up woman in a pair of black lace stockings and some kind of black bustier was literally holding up traffic as she stood in the middle of Madison Avenue and jerked her butt toward the taxis. what are they waiting for Meanwhile, Upper East Side schools had just closed, so the sidewalks were packed with moms, gangs of kids in private school uniforms, and dogs. It was quite a scene.
Area
Photo: Courtesy of Area
In fact, much of Monday’s performative action took place on the Upper East Side. This is not as strange as it might seem. Think of all the socialites over the decades who have dressed up for shows in the grand ballrooms of Pierre and the Plaza, the era of Bill Blass and Oscar de la Renta. Think of the clotheslines waiting to catch the eye of the late photographer Bill Cunningham as he stood on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street. And think of the circus at the Met Ball in May.
Area
Photo: Courtesy of Area
What’s different now is that socialites have largely been supplanted by influencers and (usually minor) celebrities who come dressed in borrowed party clothes and glamorous hair and makeup even at 10 a.m. Although I should be used to it. Seeing women at the Carolina Herrera show in tulle, satin, and diamonds at brunch (designer Wes Gordon has found a niche in chic) still seems incredibly unreal to me. Again, it’s a performance on an almost tense level as social media has obviously raised the stakes for ringside guests.
Carolina Herrera
Photo: Courtesy of Carolina Herrera
As for Gordon’s collection, it looked up-to-date and elegant. Listening to the pure voice of Barbra Streisand (from Funny Girl) on the sound system didn’t hurt when a model appeared in a long-sleeved navy striped blouse and yellow floral evening skirt followed by a smiling Karlie Kloss in a smock suit. only one piece. striped sundress on the shoulders with a little bare midriff. Gordon pulls off the big wow numbers with ease (the billowing skirts in soft floral prints, an elegant cocktail dress with a touch of tulle) and skips the finicky details. That is what he has learned in recent years. The collection was also strong on slightly more casual, not strictly “daytime” styles, such as a sharp strapless column in wide black and white stripes, a raspberry beaded trim wool mini-suit, and a cute straw hat. black canvas with black border. net.
“I want people to know that craft is not fleeting,” Panszczyk told me after the Area show. Could anyone doubt that after seeing a birdcage-shaped coat made of strips of material with dozens of silver metal cones around it? Or a tiny metal-embellished top with a pair of baggy pants made from a tangle of strips of fabric that evoke electronic wires? Area operates in its own fantasy space, drawing on both ancient and futuristic allusions, but if Panszczyk’s designs weren’t so well constructed, creativity wouldn’t matter, as he knows. He also included a number of simple looks, including a red beaded tracksuit and fabulous bandeau top and mini skirt in what looked like raw denim with random strips of denim folded over and pressed against the surface. But showpieces are the thing, and many downright bare the body with rolls of fabric or flat, bead-encrusted ties (mostly) covering the sexual parts.
Coach took over the Park Avenue Armory, where he erected a huge wooden platform in the center with the audience some distance above the bleachers. Although Stuart Vevers, the creative director, was inspired by the idea of New Yorkers traveling in the summer between the city and the beaches of Rockaway and Coney Island, this did not come to fruition. Also, the clothes seemed a bit sad and drab. Vevers said beforehand that he wanted to “strip” things down to elemental leather jackets (some from reworked garments), shorts, and plaid doll dresses. Leather jackets were cool, but you craved more color and, yes, more bare skin.
Coach.
Photo: Courtesy of the Coach
Rebecca Hessel Cohen, the founder of LoveShackFancy, is under no illusions about what many women want: tons of pink, the sparkler the better. I wandered through Madison after the Coach Beach bummer and joined the boisterous garden party filled with Cohen’s music at the Cooper Hewitt on 90th Street. The place was packed with women and girls at LoveShack, their trappings and romance reminiscent of party favors and feminine beauty from classic Hollywood movies.
LoveShackFancy
Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for NYFW: The Shows
Or is it still? You can make a fortune giving people what they want and then repeating it over and over again. I admired the massive benches of almost blushing pink and ivory roses, the tables of champagne and sugared pink macaroons. And then I was off to the more ordinary nature of the Upper East Side, passing a French bulldog and a golden retriever with their owners.
LoveShackFancy
Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for NYFW: The Shows
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