We can all agree that Grand Central Station is a beautiful building. It’s also one of the busiest transit hubs in New York, flooded with people who have somewhere to be at noon on a weekday. Commuters be damned. Kate Spade creative officer Deborah Lloyd was so lured by Grand Central’s “mystique,” as she called it, that she insisted on staging the brand’s spring presentation as a brunch-like party in the Oyster Bar in the station’s basement.
This year marks the brand’s 25th anniversary, so Lloyd wanted to capture an American spirit — specifically New Orleans. She had the Preservation Hall Jazz Band flown in to play the party and infused the lineup with a laid-back romance. “It’s more casual than usual,” she said. “New Orleans is the Big Easy.” Not so easy was finding the collection through the crowd — first the mobs of subway riders and tourists on the way in, and then the listless masses of editors, influencers and their dedicated photographers that created a human barrier to the clothes. In the back of the restaurant a group of models was tightly arranged on a platform, offering glimpses of flowy tops, butterfly motifs and black-based florals that gave an impression of pretty-ness.