If fashion is a language, then the best designers don’t mumble.
They know their vocabulary well enough to get specific. By the end of New York Fashion Week S/S27, MEGA’s favorite collections had given us women we could imagine, clothes we wanted to touch, and plenty of personality to keep the group chat busy with pop culture references.
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What Sets the Standout NYFW S/S27 Collections Apart
A good point of view makes a collection feel inhabited. The woman on the runway already has somewhere to go once the show ends, and naturally, we want to know more about her. Take Ralph Lauren, for example. His worldly romantic looks as though she existed before the first look appeared, with her wardrobe revealing just enough about the life she leads to make us curious about the rest. Anyone can admire her beautiful dress, but it’s in secretly coveting her lifestyle and making her interests our new personality that keeps us hooked.
Once we care about the woman, our eyes move closer to what she’s wearing. Construction has nowhere to hide at Fashion Week, nor should it. A designer working at this level should know how a garment should fall on it. Or wrap. Or dangle. You get the picture.
Look at Michael Kors’ bags. They’re well-made and have personality. One glance at those pieces inspired the perfectly reasonable response of, “Oh, I need that.”
A Designer’s Greatest Strength Is Conviction
It’s the hardest trait to fake, hence it’s the most important.
A fashion house with history inevitably comes with baggage, and the archive can become a very overbearing chaperone if treated too preciously. Respecting what came before should never leave a designer terrified of manipulating it. At a certain point, knowing the codes means taking a chance to…play with them. Even just a tad.
It’s wonderful then that Catherine Holstein knows Khaite well enough to misbehave. For her outing, nothing looks thrown in merely to make everyone clutch their pearls. It’s a confidence that can only come after enough trial and error.
As with all things, trusting yourself matters when moving forward in fashion. Trends are unavoidable, experimentation is healthy, and history never fully leaves the room, but a strong sense of self can absorb change without developing an identity crisis.
In short, the less you doubt yourself, the more compelling you become.
Photos: BRANDON CHAN, Photographed by DHRUV PANDIRI, CALVIN KLEIN (via Instagram), CULT GAIA (via Instagram), GRACE LING (via Instagram), KHAITE (via Instagram), MAGDA BUTRYM (via Instagram), MICHAEL KORS (via Instagram), MONSE (via Instagram), RALPH LAUREN (via Instagram), TORY BURCH (via Instagram), and VEEJAY FLORESCA, Photographed by JEAN PAUL FUENTES
Featured image: BRANDON CHAN, Photographed by JAYSON SILVA
