New York Fashion Week isn’t in a rut, per se. It’s reflective of the realities of the current industry, which is dealing with the impossibilities of running an independent fashion label today. It also mirrors the state of the country: instability reduces appetite for risk.
Runway collections aren’t so much used as the full extent of artistic expression anymore; the pieces could strut right off the catwalk to the sales floor. Every buyer I spoke to gushed over the Khaite show — they’re excited to get their hands on it.
After her show on Tuesday, Daniella Kallmeyer told me, “I’m only thinking about commerciality. It is my creative expression.”
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Commerciality eating into creativity has been happening in New York for years now. This season, collections may have reached peak wearability, with pieces not just in sensible cuts but largely devoid of colour. Black, white, grey and beige were all over the runway, from Ralph Lauren and Michael Kors to Toteme and Khaite — even with pops of colour, like a head-to-toe pink ensemble at Calvin Klein, monochromatic looks were the top trend of the week as noted by Brigitte Chartrand, chief buying and merchandising officer at Net-a-Porter.
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Is that a bad thing? When everything begins to blur together, yes, but there were punctuations of energy to keep things interesting enough. Zane Li’s Lii had a strong first showing in New York on Tuesday after a few seasons of market appointments in Paris. Cheers filled the room during the finales of both Zankov and Rachel Scott’s Diotima, whose first runway shows were highlights of the week and featured lots of colour. A taste of what Scott will bring to Proenza Schouler, where she’s now creative director, was also an early highlight of the week.
“Ashlyn was radiant—structured knit dresses and fluid jersey gave the collection real dimension. And Nicolas Aburn’s debut at Area was pure glee,” says David Thielebeule, men’s and women’s buying director at Bloomingdale’s. “It opened with sharp denim and closed with dresses that shimmered like oversized cheerleader pompoms. High energy, high fun.”
Tory Burch said she started this collection thinking about colour, because she wanted it to feel optimistic yet sophisticated. Area’s Nicholas Aburn, a former Balenciaga couture designer, integrated conceptual pieces into his debut collection, which fit right alongside the denim and bomber jackets. Other labels like Luar, Collina Strada, Eckhaus Latta and Willy Chavarria (who has decamped for Paris but put on a womenswear salon on Saturday) offered counterprogramming to the minimalist simplicity.
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Throughout the week, designers’ dedication to craft and quality shone through the cuts and construction. “I’m a nerd for fashion, and I think that the biggest part of my joy is actually when I’m deep in the clothing — when I’m doing fittings, when I’m studying the process. A big dose of design went into this collection,” Calvin Klein creative director Veronica Leoni said after her show.
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With tariff policy changes roiling production processes this year, the road to fashion week featured bigger hurdles than usual. “Everybody was freaked out at first, not even knowing how you could make a collection because you didn’t know the price of the fabrics. But you had to bite the bullet and move forward,” says Anna Sui.
Showing on-schedule is a sign of determination, Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) CEO Steven Kolb told me before the week began. If you didn’t love it, you wouldn’t be there. It also didn’t stop international visitors Off-White, Toteme and Cos from showing in New York this season. Toteme CEO Johanna Sjöberg said after the show that the US is one of the brand’s most important markets. Cos didn’t just drop in to host its own big-budget runway, it gifted its venue to Scott so she didn’t have to pay production costs for Diotima’s first show. KidSuper also gave back by using his calendar slot to platform five emerging designers.
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Still, New York fashion as a whole has undeniably lost some of its edge. The week’s shows were largely apolitical, preferring escapism and lightness to contrast with what’s going on in the world. Size diversity on the runway has also fallen off the map. It felt like most brands were trying not to rock the boat, making for a placid season. But creativity and chaos cannot be contained forever — especially in times like these that call out for an agent of change. The seams will rip open in time.
Here are the other takeaways from the SS26 New York Fashion Week season.
- Trend watch 2026. Intentionally rumpled clothing, ripped jeans, pom poms, necklaces with oversized pendants, tchotchkes or coin purses, and pops of red made their way down the runways of Tory Burch, Area, Michael Kors, Calvin Klein, Heirlome and Fforme, according to buyers. Some editors asked what season we were in, as big faux furs and leather coats were seen for spring from Altuzarra, while Ralph Lauren’s woman was ready for a beach vacation. Elsewhere, forget Y2K — it felt like a 2010s revival with thigh-high boots and balloon pants making a comeback.
- The tariff question. Was it more difficult to get to the runway this season thanks to the tariff roller coaster this year? In a sense yes, in that difficult decisions had to be made. Todd Snyder says when he realised that prices would have to go up this season, he wanted to make sure quality went up, too, so that customers would feel like they were getting value. He made knitwear in Portugal for the first time after long producing it in Asia. Lafayette148 CEO Deirdre Quinn shares a similar outlook: “We would rather make fewer units of high-end quality than just produce volume.”
- The fashion show as reinforcer. We’ve asked the question many times: who needs to do a runway show? PVH CEO Stefan Larsson said after Calvin Klein’s show on Friday that the show and collection is “the ultimate expression of the brand. It sets the tone and the direction for the whole brand.” This point was echoed throughout the week. The purpose of the fashion show is to drive the momentum for the collection by creating content and aligning teams internally on the story they’ll be telling in the season’s marketing and merchandising. Toteme’s Sjöberg says the impact of the show extends from design development all the way through stores and communication channels. “It helps you define what the message is, what we’re focusing on,” she explains. It also inspires designers to do their best work. “It puts pressure on me to perform,” says Burch.
- So nice they did it twice. While it’s become tradition for Ralph Lauren to put on back-to-back runway shows to accommodate more guests (this season, he did three), other designers are adopting the strategy for the first time. Altuzarra, Wiederhoeft and Meruert Tolegen showed their collections twice. “I felt that this was the only solution,” Tolegen says, thanks to her small atelier venue. Who says the runway is dead? “Fashion week still works its magic. The runway and showrooms set the tone and ignite conversations that continue for months,” says Thielebeule. “More than just shows, it’s theater, commerce, and inspiration rolled into one — and that’s what keeps it relevant.”
With additional reporting from Madeleine Schulz
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