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Sep 2, 2014
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New York fashion week should be robust

Published
Sep 2, 2014

There will be 80 fashion shows presenting spring-summer 2015 collections, 15 new designers and a total of 12 countries represented in New York from September 4 - 11.

Numerous foreign designers have chosen New York, lured by signs of a strong recovery and the ever-growing extravagant wealth of the privileged.


Gareth Pugh has moved from Paris to New York (fall-winter 2014-15 collection, Photo Pixel Formula)



There’s a strong presence of Australians at Sass & Bide, for example, as well as at the new designer label Tome, who have fled a market dominated by the ever-increasing importance of online sales on sites such as Asos. There’s also the debut show of the Nigerian designer Lisa Folawiyo, who will present her eponymous collection (previously called Jewel by Lisa) at Ladurée on September 6.

In terms of venues, while many designers continue to show at the Lincoln Center, others have chosen offbeat locations such as Ladurée, or even more “artsy” spots.

Tommy Hilfiger, whose shows will be high points of the week, has set the tone by moving over to the Park Avenue Armory, a former military warehouse converted into a theater. The brand has decided to do things a little differently, inviting social media stars from a variety of backgrounds to attend their first fashion show and then to report online what they saw. The event will be streamed live on tommy.com on September 8.

Some have elected to show in art galleries, such as the young French accessories Chloe Gosselin, who designs bags made of exotic leathers and has made headlines by marrying the magician David Copperfield, 30 years her elder. 

She will present her collection, which will be on sale this fall at Saks, at the Bookstein Gallery. The Swedish designer Carin Rodebjer, meanwhile, has chosen the Bowery Hotel for her eponymous label.

While Jeff Koons has taken over three floors in a retrospective exhibition at the Whitney, his colorful work proclaiming that “art is a product," Vanessa Friedman posed this question at the beginning of August in the New York Times: “aren’t fashion shows just entertainment?"

The American journalist supported the idea by citing the example of the up-coming fashion show from Gareth Pugh, the protégé of Rick Owens, who is already distributed in the United States at Barneys, Bergdorf and Neiman Marcus.

Having showed for 6 years in Paris, the London designer, who likes to create surprises with color and material, has now moved to New York, where he is preparing a show in partnership with Lexus that combines video and dance that promises quite the spectacle. Or there’s Jeremy Scott, who announced a collaboration with Miley Cyrus for his show.

Supermodels will be the subject of a conference put on by Olivier Saillard, director of the Palais Galliera fashion museum in Paris, entitled "Models Never Talk”, organized in collaboration with the French l’Alliance Française at Milk Studios on September 8.

For Nicole Fischelis, fashion director at Macy's, this is what "makes this fashion cycle so interesting”: the meeting between fashion and art is becoming more and more pronounced. She will be looking out for these kinds “of new attitudes", which are permeating fashion shows, whether through the incorporation of mixed media, of minimalism or an overall melding of both.

Fischelis will follow both “recognized designers” such as Prabal Gurung, Proenza Schouler and the very "artsy" Tom Browne, as well as new faces such as Suno, Sophie Theallet, or the designers from Made, who present their work at Milk Studio.

As for colors, there is little chance that orange will be avoided. The cult TV show Orange is the New Black has already rubbed off on the Emmy ceremony where Kerry Washington wore a fiery dress designed by Prada.

Amidst all these changes, at least some traditions will endure: the luncheon gala put on by Couture Council of FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) will kick off the festivities on September 3, this year honoring the Venezuelan-American seamstress Carolina Herrera, who designed the dress for Julia Louis Dreyfus at the Emmys.

Pascale Richard

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