New York has returned to Fashion Week, pending the MET gala

Between notable returns, such as Thom Browne or Altuzarra, and iconic sets, New York Fashion Week Spring / Summer 2022, which ended on September 12, returned for the first time to physical catwalks after eighteen months of almost total break due to Covid-19. Here are some highlights.

In New York – which precedes London, Milan and Paris -, emblematic places sometimes serve as a setting for the parade, such as the Apollo Theater for Tommy Hilfiger or the atmosphere of Studio 54 for Michael Kors in 2019. After two editions dominated by the virtual parades, the creators took advantage of the richness of the decorations offered by the city for the return of the public. Thus, LaQuan Smith, one of the figures among the emerging black designers, offered himself the luxury of a parade at the Empire State Building, playing the card of glamor and sensuality, between short dresses and bare shoulders.

But for this first Fashion Week, reviving a little normality, the call of green and nature was especially felt. A cheerfully messy show in an urban vegetable garden for Collina Strada, who claims more sustainable fashion, with lots of recycled materials, or a more classic parade for Ulla Johnson, at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

The Tory Burch show took place in a recreated fruit and flower market setting in one of New York’s chicest parts of Soho, right outside a designer store. Between impeccable apple stalls and booksellers’ tables, her collection, a tribute to the American designer Claire McCardell, celebrated as usual an elegant and determined woman.

For several years, Thom Browne has preferred Paris for its parades. But this time, he wanted to make a detour through New York. He explained that it was a way of supporting the exhibition on American fashion (In America: a fashion lexicon) which opened at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and whose curator, Andrew Bolton, is his companion. For this spring-summer 2022 collection, he offered a musical tale, where each model, man or woman, was as much the character of a story as a model. In an enchanted but somewhat disturbing garden, with a background sound of a small music box, a sober gray to often dominated, on overlays of coat, jacket, skirt and pants. But to this sobriety of color were added the flowers painted on the faces or hanging from the hair.

Also left to parade in Paris where he grew up, Joseph Altuzarra also returned to New York, where his parade, opened by the star Gigi Hadid, gave pride of place to flower ornaments and lace necklaces. “I wanted to be a part of this renaissance of the New York scene and New York as a city, and I thought returning from my show was the best way for me to be a part of that “, he explained. And to add: “There is a freedom and openness in New York and the fashion community here that doesn’t exist elsewhere.”

Sunday September 12, the Tom Ford parade closed a series of 90 presentations (Moschino, Sergio Hudson, Carolina Herrera, Hillary Taymour, Christian Siriano, Oscar de la Renta, Telfar Clemens …) which were held throughout the week. But New York museums have taken over and continue to celebrate fashion.

Following its success at the Musée des Arts décoratifs in Paris, the exhibition Christian Dior : Designer of Dreams reinvented itself at the Brooklyn Museum, since September 10, through the eyes of curator Florence Müller – in collaboration with curator Matthew Yokobosky for the selection of works in the museum. Following a new scenographic story – including several silhouettes unveiled for the first time – this event crowns more than seventy years of passion initiated by the pioneering vision of Christian Dior. In September 1947, just a few months after the triumph of the New Look, the couturier flew to the United States, a country with which the house forged a long and unwavering friendship.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj2L55xaI3k

The Met opens the first chapter of his major retrospective on American fashion. In this context, a Met gala, the great New York social gathering, an opportunity for brands to dress the stars who parade on the red carpet, is held Monday, September 13 in the evening, after being canceled in May due to of Covid-19. Tradition has it that the dress code is tied to the theme of the upcoming Met show. This year, the gala also aims to rejuvenate its image, with singer Billie Eilish, actor Timothée Chalamet, poet Amanda Gorman and tennis player Naomi Osaka as co-chairs.

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