Every September, people in fashion talk about how attending the fall shows feels like going back to school, not just because of the timing, but also because of the emotions and awkwardness it can bring up. What do you wear on the first day? When you arrive, will people be nice to you? Will you fit in? Will you be invited to all the cool parties and events? No matter how many times you go or how powerful you may be, these feelings are human and inevitable. But for some reason, this year, the energy felt different.
I caught nary a side-eye. Even despite a doom-and-gloom report about how the New York fashion industry is shrinking, released by the nonprofit Partnership for New York City at the beginning of the week, almost no one I spoke to felt the need to complain. My interactions were overwhelmingly warm and friendly, and every show I attended was notably unpretentious.
At first, I wondered if I were the one who had changed. Or maybe it was the weather? It’s hard to be jaded when it’s sunny and 75 degrees. But by day seven, it was clear to me that New York Fashion Week had undergone a real, profound shift—a necessary one, I think, in order to survive. (It was also clear that I was still just as pretentious.)
My week began with a bulldog named Elmer wearing a pasta-print puffer vest. He was the winner of Rachel Antonoff and Susan Alexandra’s delightful dog show at St. Ann’s Warehouse, where New York characters like Sandra Bernhard, Tavi Gevinson, and New Yorker writer Naomi Fry paraded rescue pups in front of comedic hosts Kate Berlant and Jacqueline Novak, as well as judge Bridget Everett. Everyone sitting front row, including potential first daughter Ella Emhoff, received a prize ribbon—a cheeky and humbling gesture that Emhoff, whose Secret Service detail stood off to the side, proudly embraced.
In addition to the show just being pure fun, to me, it was notable that two designers decided to join forces and share the spotlight. This can be a smart move financially, but also creatively, as we’ve seen with partners Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons over in Milan since Simons joined Prada as creative director in 2020. It was the first example of the week of designers breaking form and trying something different.
Another example was Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta, who hosted an intimate dinner party with friends and editors that turned into a surprise runway show, with guests—almost none of whom were professional models—strutting between the tables wearing Eckhaus Latta. I wasn’t there, but the secondhand joy I felt tapping through the resulting Instagram Stories afterward, I think, says everything: You didn’t need to be there to feel the energy, and want to be a part of it, too, perhaps by buying into the brand’s world in some way.
The most memorable moments are often those that are, for better or worse, a bit scrappy and chaotic, like Batsheva’s sidewalk show outside the brand’s SoHo store or the model who walked Collina Strada pushing a lawn mower. LaPointe scrapped its runway show at the last minute and shot a look book with none other than … Oprah??? Big brands can conjure an organic, spontaneous energy, too, with the right location and programming. Tommy Hilfiger, for example, rented Pete Davidson and Colin Jost’s retired Staten Island Ferry for a floating runway show, inviting the Wu-Tang Clan to perform for guests. The Wu-Tang Clan!!!
European luxury houses like Alaïa and Off-White lured some celebrities to the Big Apple for shows—Rihanna at the former’s and Zayn Malik and Camila Cabello at the latter’s. Madonna and Ice Spice also showed up to Luar. But most A-listers were off at the U.S. Open or elsewhere. Some might see this as yet another sign of New York Fashion Week’s decline, but when have New Yorkers ever put celebrities on a pedestal? We have our own micro-celebs to ogle over, like Emhoff and actor Christopher Abbott, who wore an Odeon baseball cap to the Antonoff-Alexandra show.
Having lived in New York my whole life, I’d say the city is at its best when it feels like a bit of an underdog. The fashion industry here is in trouble, yes. But this humbling moment forced a lot of designers to focus on what is best for them, as opposed to trying to be like the historic brands that show in Milan and Paris.
I think this reflects a much broader power shift and reprioritization happening in fashion, where Substackers, many of whom are former editors, are now sitting front row next to editors in chief, and editors in chiefs have newsletters and podcasts. There are clear advantages to focusing on a smaller audience rather than trying to please everyone all at once. I’m much more likely to buy something if I feel a personal connection to the designer or the person telling me to buy the thing in the first place, and Fashion Week is, after all, about selling things. Less pomp and circumstance also means more room for smaller and up-and-coming designers to really shine. I’m thinking about names like Zankov, Diotima, Kallmeyer, Colleen Allen, and Willy Chavarria, all of whom showed pieces I could totally see myself wearing in real life.
My week ended with me packing into an elevator with an actress friend whose name I’m not going to tell you after Kallmeyer’s first runway show, which I found incredibly sexy and powerful, especially for 9:00 a.m. Rather than get into a town car, we took the 1 train home together, chatting the whole time about outfits, brands we liked, and how to style them. No one bothered us or even noticed we existed. Everyone was in their own world, which to me, is very New York. Here, it’s about choosing your own adventure, and that was how my New York Fashion Week felt. There was no one place to be, because everywhere was the place to be. It can make the whole thing feel deceptively normal. But when I finally got off at my stop, I thought: Did that really just happen?
Emilia Petrarca is a Brooklyn-based freelance writer covering fashion and culture. She previously worked at New York Magazine's The Cut, where she spent five years obsessing over everything from going-out tops to Anna Wintour’s lunch to The RealReal. Her work has since been featured in The New York Times, T Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and more. She also took *that* video of Larry David at NYFW.
