This week, of the many designers who showed their collections during New York Fashion Week, whether on or off the calendar, they shared a similar sentiment: that impactful design can have an impact, and in typical New York fashion, instead of waiting for things to change, many designers decided to be the change themselves. From leading with purpose to leading with craft, America’s designers are doing what they’ve always done best, creating with heart.
Models glided around the maze of spectators, phones at the ready, and between the French whispers of the live DJ set and the loungey beat, it felt like a 21st-century salon. But instead of tight-lipped self-importance, the energy was refreshingly joyful and playful. A world that writers and artists like James Baldwin and Josephine Baker might have inhabited decades prior during the Black Renaissance in Paris… If only they had had cellphones and Instagram accounts.
Heavily inspired by French New Wave film director, Éric Rohmer, and four principles — restraint, temptation, obsession, and detachment — Adivsry’s FW 2025 collection titled “4 Moral Tales” by designer Keith Herron was ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ personified. Announcing itself in glove pockets and fur mittens, shearling capes, Edwardian fur column coats, half-zipped basketball sneakers, and pearl-embroidered sets. Juxtaposed with louchely styled scarves, shepherds’ check pea coats, and Ivy League polos. A reclamation of the American dream.
Christian Juul Nielsen drew on his youth at Aknvas as, and he created a collection focused on his time in a Danish boarding school. “I’m interested in the clash that happens when kids come together from all these different social backgrounds, and how they express themselves,” he explained backstage. The collection was broken into three parts: “The Preppy Arrival,” marking the beginning of the student’s journey — think cropped trench coats, striped button-ups with 3D flowers, and bonded lace denim. “The Experiment,” also known as the self-discovery phase (which may or may not involve a nightclub or two) — acid-washed denim, scuffed leather, laced-up open back looks, hand-knitted hats, and tie-dye prints included. The “Royal Intrusion,” a personal favourite of Nielsen’s, as he always finds a way to work the monarchy into his collections. “My niece is also in boarding school right now, and she’s going to school with the Princess of Denmark. So, I was inspired to do an entire section on Danish princesses,” he smiled.
Christian Juul Nielsen’s blue-chip background as a couture-level designer at Christian Dior and Oscar de la Renta, before launching Aknvas in 2019, might explain the obsession, but Nielsen is equally obsessed with his customer. “My girls, they want to dress like the runway,” he said. Unlike most brands, Aknvas does a little runway-to-retail editing, a rarity for most designers.
Marking the brand’s runway debut, Sivan’s inclusive tailoring has already caught the eye of Bergdorf Goodman, whose Senior Men’s Fashion Director was in the audience. Held on the terrace of The Ellery in midtown, the guest list resembled more of a friendly get-together, rather than a who’s who of a typical fashion show. In part, because the majority of his guests were, in fact, the designer Jack Sivan’s friends and family sprinkled in with the industry of every ilk. Everyone was standing or sitting together — there was no front row. The designer’s statement on what a more inclusive system could look like.
This was “Sivan Boulevard” after all. A ’70s feeling New York City utopia where everyone was welcome, everyone knew their neighbour, people waved good morning and treated suiting like their favourite pair of jeans; to be worn without abandon, and as a symbol of liberation rather than restriction. Suiting’s purpose is to fit and be useful to you throughout your day. “Ultimately, it’s supposed to give you a sense of dignity in addition to comfort,” said Sivan. It’s also made sustainably and 100% in New York. When the show was over, the audience cheered and clapped continuously until the venue cleared out.
The invitation urged guests to arrive early to secure a seat, and by 8:30, a line had formed, wrapping around the block of an old warehouse, the bottom floor of Jane Wade HQ, somewhere between Gowanus and Boerum Hill. It was a typical fashion crowd for a young designer — Brooklyn TikTokers, editors, and underground personalities, but for some, it might have been their first fashion show, as the venue was big enough to accommodate a crowd. A simple nod to Wade’s belief in equality, not as a morality play but a core value. “I hope to be leading a new wave of designers, creatives, people that are bosses and lead teams to lead with warmth and kindness and love and genuine care, and that will help push us all forward,” Wade said.
The collection titled “The Fulfillment,” complete with a clock countdown projected on the wall, was inspired by the unglamorous lives of warehouse workers, often tasked with working fast for long hours, little pay, and even less autonomy, and their endless battle with AI to keep the jobs they hate. Featuring a mix of kitschy riffs on the brand’s signature button-up, reimagined hoop skirts, clever trompe l’oeil pieces, and striking cage dresses symbolizing corporate confinement, the collection made its point. Models wore branded hairstyles with the company’s logo etched in, a sharp nod to employer control and ownership. Jane Wade’s message was unmistakable: We’re here. We matter. And we’re reclaiming our time.
The young suiting label that first staged a runway on Anna Delvey’s East Village rooftop has come a long way in just two years. Designer Shao Yang — who presents her eponymous label under her first name alone — unveiled her latest collection, Futures of the Past: Chrome Legacy, at Artechouse in Chelsea. The venue, an immersive art, science, and technology museum, felt like as much a character in the futuristic storyline as the humanoid projections on the walls — or the clothes themselves, which, for the record, were fabulous.
Drawing on fashion from the 1970s through the imagined 2070s, Yang crafted a century-long narrative populated by characters ranging from dim sum servers to Chinatown power players. The opening look — a sharp-shouldered patchwork blazer paired with trousers and a matching paperboy cap — evoked the swagger of a zoot suit. A windowpane check dusted with metallic glitter dazzled, while jolts of highlighter yellow, pink, and purple injected optimism into the lineup. Unexpectedly, the brand’s first foray into streetwear landed just as strongly.
Models wore gray contacts and silver grills that echoed the glint of jewelry on their wrists and the hardware in their hands, heightening the chrome-infused vision. For any young label, fame may be the dream, but longevity is the goal. For Shao, raw talent may well be the key to endurance.
They say when something dies, something new is born. After losing his brother to gun violence two years ago, CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund and LVMH Prize finalist Jacques Agbobly wasn’t sure he could create again. But memory has a way of leading us back. He returned to his childhood in Lomé, Togo, where grief and joy intertwined — barefoot soccer games, rounds of mancala and musical chairs, and late nights at his aunt’s Bar Happy Land. He thought, too, of the games boys like his brother were forced to play, growing up too fast. From that reflection came Pentagames, the title of Agbobly’s Spring/Summer 2026 collection.
The show opened with four FC Harlem athletes dribbling a soccer ball down the runway, framed by a reimagining of Bar Happy Land. Linking arms and hands on shoulders, they exited in formation, giving way to models in monochromatic suiting — some in crisp white or navy, others in vivid sheers of pink and yellow. The collection traced a delicate line between youthful joie de vivre and the stark realities of adulthood and mortality. Models carrying flowers evoked a funeral for the past, while pieces like a plunging, gender-neutral dovetail dress and a floor-length skirt styled with a bare chest suggested a celebration of the future.
Agbobly delivered not just a collection, but a body of work — an offering that feels, in every sense, deserving of flowers.
words. Malcolm Thomas
