If in the last two seasons the catwalks have shown more exposed skin than we were used to seeing, next spring, judging by what has been seen in this week of parades in New York, the discourse does not revolve around teach, but to liberate the female body from the constrictions to which fashion has historically subjected it. Last Wednesday, Michael Kors moved to the West Village to present a more hedonistic collection than usual. Under the title of Urban Jungle, the American creator tried to fuse the uniform of the metropolis with that of the vacation resort: tailored pieces in acid colors were mixed with caftans, one-shoulder tunics and satin blouses.
Another self-confessed Halston fan, Tom Ford, closed fashion week on Wednesday with a parade at The Vessel in which he rescued several of the elements that made him famous at the turn of the century: lace bras and bodies, satin blazers , unbuttoned cowboy blouses, lamé pants, sequined dresses and other pieces that shaped, two decades ago, that unprejudicedly sexy aesthetic that made the Texan creator the most desired brand in the world.
These are, however, times of transition for Ford. Last May he left his position as president of the North American Designers Council (CDFA), which he assumed in 2019 and from which he tried to combat the ravages that the pandemic caused (and continues to cause) to the sector. A month later, rumors began to spread that he was negotiating the sale of his fashion brand to Estée Lauder (the company that operates his lucrative line of fragrances and cosmetics) for 3,000 million euros. Perhaps this new collection, a return to the keys to his success, is his way of closing a stage.
A model during the Tom Ford spring/summer 2023 collection show on September 14 in New York. Andres Kudacki (AP)
Last Tuesday, Puma returned to the New York catwalk (where it used to present, until 2017, the collections in collaboration with Rihanna) to celebrate both its first immersive fashion show, in which physical garments were combined with NFTs and digital pieces, as well as the debut of its new creative director, June Ambrose, one of the few relevant women in the field of urban fashion. Seasoned as a stylist for the hip hop stars of the early 2000s, Ambrose mixed garments from this and future seasons through various common threads: the mixture of tracksuits and avant-garde fashion with exaggerated patterns and volumes, the fusion of garments techniques with tailoring and even allowed himself to ironize with the stereotypes that surround athletes and urban music stars.
Three proposals from the Puma parade, on September 14, at New York Fashion Week. Dan Lecca
The Vietnamese Peter Do also made his debut. This has been his first parade to include menswear, despite the fact that many men already wore his tailoring pieces. To debut his new line, he has teamed up with SM Entertainment, the company behind many of the most successful K-pop groups of the moment. Many of them acted as models in a parade that began with a text written and read by the writer Mary HK Choi that spoke of the urgency to experience the newness of youth and how maturity gives way to a more focused existence in the present. That was precisely what the collection was about, rejecting constant novelty and recovering pieces that have always worked for Do, such as the white shirt dress or the four-panel skirt, and mixing them with pieces that are more emotional than merely visual;
Oblivious to any trend and the dynamics that its competitors handle (it barely communicates on networks and refuses to launch several collections a year), Do vindicates the culture of the workshop and the precision of a fashion built on the basis of small details at a time when vitality seems to be the only yardstick of success. Hers is a fashion that only takes center stage when it is worn, and that transcends not only the gender barrier, but also age.
Three proposals from designer Peter Do at New York Fashion Week 2022.
Although, if it is necessary to highlight a prevailing trend in this first week of parades, it is precisely the generational one. After several seasons glorifying youth, it seems that many firms are finally approaching a woman who could be any age. And that, perhaps, is the most liberating of the whole.
