New York Fashion Week S/S 27 Recap: Opulent Textiles, Unexpected Jewelry Styling, and Deconstructed Tailoring

0:10Kristen Nichols:Welcome to the Who What Wear podcast. I'm senior fashion editor Anna LaPlaca and today I'm joined by associate director Kristen Nichols to recap New York Fashion Week. We came straight from the shows to the studio to tell you everything you need to know. We chat all about our most anticipated shows, the biggest surprises on the runway, the buzziest moments, and of course, the designers to look out for. Plus, we share our best trend predictions for spring 2027. It's all coming up on Who, What, Where.

0:45Anna LaPlaca:Hi, Anna. How's it going? How's your fashion week? Hi, Kristen. It's good.

0:50Kristen Nichols:We're coming off of a busy week.

0:52Anna LaPlaca:I know, very busy week. Just to introduce myself to everyone, I'm Kristen Nichols. I'm the Associate Director of Special Project at Who at Wear and joined by Anna.

1:02Kristen Nichols:Yes, I'm Anna LaPlaca, the Senior Fashion Editor here at Who at Wear.

1:06Anna LaPlaca:So I'd love to know, just as we are kind of winding down on New York Fashion Week, what have been the most anticipated shows for you this season and did they meet your expectations?

1:16Kristen Nichols:Going into the week, my eye was fixated on DVF, mostly because I knew it was a debut. Last season was sort of the big headline of debuts across all of the cities for Fashion Month. And I feel like this season, it's really calmed down in that regard. So it was exciting to have one debut to really look forward to. It's always fun to see a house go into a new direction and be able to sort of follow a new designer in that regard. And so DVF was one that I knew I would be kind of putting my attention towards. Henry Zankoff came in, I think actually his title is artistic director, if I'm not mistaken.

1:59Kristen Nichols:I love the whole story behind his arrival or I guess return there because he got his start in design at the house and had spent many years working under Diane. And so I think his return is sort of nostalgic and full circle.

2:16Anna LaPlaca:Yeah. And I think it's interesting too, because a lot of the debuts we've seen in the past seasons have predominantly been in Europe. So to have a designer taking over an American brand and bringing new excitement and ideas to that, I think is a really big moment at New York Fashion Week.

2:32Kristen Nichols:It was really cute to see him come out at the end of the show and give her a big hug in the front row. And it felt like a passing of the baton, if you will. And then of course, You know, seeing what he kind of pulled from the archives, obviously the wrap dress, the iconic silhouette, which we saw on the runway. I feel like one thing that he does especially well is his color stories. And of course, DVF is a house that is known for many prints and print clashing and how he sort of delineated that through his eye I thought was very fresh. And there were some looks that were like sort of color blocked.

3:06Kristen Nichols:There was like a wrap dress that had one color on one side of the collar and like the tie was a different color. And so I thought that that was like a fresh way to view this like very iconic wrap dress silhouette. I know you just went to his own namesake show earlier this afternoon.

3:22Anna LaPlaca:I'm coming straight from there. Oh, amazing. Actually, Dionne von Furstenberg was sitting at the show and he came out and gave her a hug there. So it felt like a very full circle moment for her to be at his show and see the designs for his own brand as well.

3:37Kristen Nichols:I love seeing how a designer interprets a really big brand and then kind of does their own thing, too. It's like always very special to see like where their mind is at.

3:45Anna LaPlaca:Speaking of which, I feel like one of the most anticipated shows for me this season was Proenza because Rachel Scott had her second show. And I feel like the first show is always an interesting first moment for a designer to have their first perspective on the brand and how they're interpreting it. But I feel like her second show, especially to me, felt so strong. She just really fused her sense of print and color and texture with a lot of what we know and love about Proenza, but very much in her own way.

4:17Kristen Nichols:Obviously, like with a debut collection, there's so much pressure that gets put upon the designer and the brand in that specific moment. But I feel like in this case with Proenza and Rachel, the sophomore collection was like, it just really hit it out of the park. And I feel like it hit on all the notes that I wanted it to personally. Like I love Rachel and it really brought in her strengths, like you mentioned. But then also I feel like it really went back to these like strong, like core codes of who the Proenza girl is. And like Proenza is one of the first few brands that I ever like really went hardcore for being like a young person coming up into the fashion world ages ago.

4:59Kristen Nichols:And so it almost felt nostalgic weirdly for me to just see it. I was like, wow, I'm really reminded like why I love this brand so much. And I think it's also nice when you have a collection where like look after look, you say to yourself, I want to wear that right now. Head to toe, like put me in that.

5:17Anna LaPlaca:Yeah, it felt very wearable and very editorial. But even the comeback of the PS1 bag and the collection, you know, I feel like that will be a big moment next spring.

5:25Kristen Nichols:And I'm excited to see like the campaign that comes with that and how they bring it to market and even the price point. I'll be honest. Too meaty. Yeah. Yeah. Always love a comeback bag moment. Tell me about some of the more underrated shows this week. Were there any collections that you weren't expecting to love, but now can't stop thinking about or any shows that surprised you in any way?

5:50Anna LaPlaca:So this is by no means underrated, but I think one of the shows that surprised me was I went to Brandon Maxwell. It was a very small room, probably like 65 people total. And it was just such an intimate show. They had live music. You know, obviously it's great when like you see so many people from the industry and so many people are able to experience it. But there's something about such an intimate experience, seeing a collection that felt really special and unexpected in New York. I feel like you don't really get those smaller shows that much outside of maybe like a presentation or something.

6:27Kristen Nichols:Yeah, it was almost salon style, it seemed.

6:30Anna LaPlaca:Yeah, it felt very much like a kind of like Paris salon. And it was very beautiful.

6:34Kristen Nichols:Well, it looked really special. And I also just love the live music component to that. There's something so emotional and like visceral about that. It reminds me of last season, Prabal Gurung showed in a Catholic church on Park Avenue. And there was just like the huge organ going and like a live choir singing in the background and it was like, wow, I feel like goosebumps right now.

6:57Anna LaPlaca:Yeah. So special. I love that.

7:00Kristen Nichols:Did you have any surprise moments? This isn't that underrated, but, you know, Eckhaus Lata, I think is a brand that is on a lot of people's lips this season for a number of reasons. I mean, they're coming off of their huge collaboration with J.Crew that was followed by an even more buzzy after party.

7:20Anna LaPlaca:I was going to say that was one of the most talked about parties of the week. It was.

7:24Kristen Nichols:And it was in this beautiful, like, Gilded Age mansion on Gramercy Park. So when you walk in, it's like so dramatic already. And they had set it up like it was just this multi-level, like, house party. The first thing I noticed when I walked in was, like, Paloma Elsasser having this, like, heart-to-heart with Lena Dunham. And I was just like, okay, this is what Fashion Week, this is what everyone thinks Fashion Week is. And I'm living in the one moment that it is. So it was funny. No, it was a great party and even more so a great collaboration. The runway is what I was going to say. Really surprised me in the sense that I always feel like I know sort of what I can expect from a brand like Ecoslata.

8:04Kristen Nichols:But this time I really went back to look at the photos and I was like, wow, there are some wonderful styling nuggets here that I wasn't expecting to really latch onto as much. And that was a very strong one that kind of came out of left field for me.

8:20Anna LaPlaca:Were there any newcomers or emerging designers that you think hit it out of the park outside of Echoslada?

8:26Kristen Nichols:This is probably like more obvious because I feel like it was a major headline this week, but Connor Ives having come across the pond from the UK and done his show, you know, here in New York, I feel like that was a really exciting moment. And I will say, like, I think he's technically still considered an emerging brand, even though a lot of us who work in the industry, like, know and love him. It's just a really great time for the brand in general. And I feel like his aesthetic is sort of converging at this moment when, like, a lot of people are interested in his POV, if that makes sense. Like, I don't think he's following a trend at all.

9:05Kristen Nichols:I feel like he's very much doing his own thing, but the trend just so happens to be converging with him at the moment of like all of these very opulent silk, you know, embroidered fabrics and like evening jackets and the very rich like occasion wear coming into the everyday, I feel like is sort of the overall trend. And so he's very much like meeting that moment organically. The collection overall was really beautiful and even more so loved seeing what people were wearing. All of the great outerwear, like I mentioned, I thought it was a very exciting moment for New York to have such a great British brand showing.

9:42Yeah, I was actually thinking about what I would answer for this myself.

9:47Anna LaPlaca:And I had the same conclusion about Connor Ives. And I usually attend London Fashion Week and went to his show last season. It was that beautiful kind of like buttercream yellow satin coat I think you were referring to with the embellishment. I noticed guests weighing that to his collection here. And his show in London is relatively small. And it was just like, I think bringing it to New York, it was like on a bigger scale and obviously like a New York audience attending. But I think the people he brought and were in the collection felt very core to him and had that like useful, cool kid energy that like really brought his clothes to life.

10:27Anna LaPlaca:And interesting to see if he'll stick around at New York Fashion Week. But I think that that was a really fun moment.

10:33Kristen Nichols:Fingers crossed he comes back. We'd love to have him. Yes. Well, let's talk about personal favorites. And I think it would be a good idea if we both pick two, which is very hard to narrow down. So tell me which collection or collections were your personal favorites. And I have a feeling I already know at least one of them.

10:55Anna LaPlaca:Probably. So the first collection I went to was on Wednesday, Ralph Lauren. Knew it. Yeah, you knew I was going to answer this. And it was just the most beautiful collection. It was at a building in Tribeca where Ralph Lauren has shown in that same building for a few seasons. It was just really a breath of fresh air. I think it kick-started the season in an interesting way because it just felt like joyful and light and really elegant, romantic. It really just brought this fresh perspective into fashion that, you know, I think we associate some of those things with spring. But I think that things have been so minimal and kind of pared back that it was really nice to see this opulent romance, in a sense, that I really loved.

11:48Anna LaPlaca:I have been on the hunt on eBay and Poshmark and the RealReal for some archival pieces, specifically from the spring 2003 collection. the best which I have had no success with at this point but the collection really felt infused with a lot of elements of that collection even like the blue and white color palette the specific shade of blue the brocade and really just intricate florals it just like had an element of that without being too referential but I don't think we've seen a collection from him or in fashion in general that has had that tone in quite some time. So I'll be continuing to talk about this collection for a long time.

12:33Anna LaPlaca:Not only was one of my favorite collections of New York Fashion Week, but one of the most impactful that I've seen in general at any fashion week. So really loved it. Mic drop. That speaks volumes. I know. And then another that I loved that had a similar sense of this like kind of romance was Altuzara. It was at the Woolworth building, which is where he typically shows. And often they'll do it in different areas, but this time it was kind of on the ground floor and all just like the beautiful facades of the building.

13:08Kristen Nichols:Such an iconic like art deco building.

13:10Anna LaPlaca:The lobby itself is beautiful. Gorgeous. In a lot of ways, I think it went back to this sense of romance and his view on like feminine dressing with like exposed bras and all of these elements that felt very elegant and romantic. But then it was kind of styled in a way that had some like harder elements, whether it was, you know, a big leather belt or just some of the details that infused this edge that I think was really interesting. So I think the styling at that was very strong.

13:42Kristen Nichols:Yeah, I loved all the little details in that show. Like, you know, even just the way that the bra strap was like falling off of a single shoulder. Like it felt very lived in and like real. And it was like this take on romance that was very effortless and sort of like, you know, softer around the edges and less precious than I think we've seen it in recent seasons. And I think that Ralph Lauren had a bit of that as well. The one look just stands out in my mind and probably will continue to. It's this like gold plunging top that had like some fringy type of elements around the waistline. And it was just something that you could see yourself like moving in and being comfortable in all night.