Lo, New York Fashion Week is upon us yet again. Looking at the schedule, a few things come to mind: Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Bridge or tunnel? And the more things change, the more they stay the same.
To the former point, after a few semesters abroad in Paris, Rodarte and Proenza Schouler are back in the city. It’s nice to see both brand names on the calendar, as without them, there would be an immense divide between a few powerhouses (Tom Ford, Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Marc Jacobs and Michael Kors) and the crop of newbies that buzzed in on their shoestrings in the last year or so (Pyer Moss, Matthew Adams Dolan, Telfar, Vaquera, Area.) Not to mention that the nascent June New York Fashion Week took Alexander Wang, Narciso Rodriguez and Rosie Assoulin off the September calendar, while some designers including Derek Lam are opting for private appointments. Adam Selman is not on the sched — he’s apparently rebranding — but Chris Peters, formerly one part of Creatures of the Wind, which essentially went out of business last year, is back with a new project called CDLM.
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Also back in town, although in a new capacity, is Rihanna, who is closing the week by showing her Savage x Fenty lingerie collection via immersive experience in Brooklyn, location TBD. She’s not the only one going outerborough — like it or not, that Rubicon has long been crossed. Eckhaus Latta, Pyer Moss, R13, VFiles and Ulla Johnson are all showing in Brooklyn. Meanwhile, rumor has it that Calvin Klein is heading west to New Jersey, though representatives for the brand did not confirm.
Some out-of-towners are landing, too: Alber Elbaz is collaborating with LeSportsac and holding a launch event; German house Escada and Paris’ Longchamp are both staging runway shows, the latter its first.
A lot of the week’s buzz will belong to the new faces with rising profiles, most of whom have slid into the 8 and 9 p.m. party/show slots, but the biggest ticket in town belongs to American fashion’s biggest name: the man, the myth, the legend Ralph Lauren, who is holding his 50th anniversary show and dinner at Bethesda Terrace in Central Park. Details are scarce for now, but anyone who’s dipped a toe in the world of Ralph Lauren knows they can expect the event to be spectacular.