It’s a chaotic time for retail: multiple multi-brand sellers have faltered, and the recent Saks Global bankruptcy cast a shadow over New York Fashion Week (NYFW). We went into this season wondering, how are designers making it work? With a laser-sharp focus on their customer.
“A real guiding light for us through all of this is remembering who our customer is,” Joseph Altuzarra said backstage after his show on Saturday, one that got people wondering how his brand isn’t even bigger. “If you’re able to understand who you’re speaking to, I think you can have a viable business.”
As a result, designers on the New York calendar today feel serious about building real businesses. Many pointed out that they only show clothes they put into production, rather than display-only pieces for runway attention. Colleen Allen and Zane Li’s Lii offered two collections with very different aesthetics, but elicited a similar response: the pieces are visually compelling, a little off-kilter, and ultra-wearable. Striking the right balance between creativity and wearability emerged as a common theme again this NYFW, as attendees applauded designers who managed to toe the line between both; and critiqued those who missed the mark.
“This week delivered serious clothes for serious times. Whereas the spring collections offered a dose of escapist dopamine, designers proposed fall collections rooted in pragmatic wardrobing, offering a sense of stability to meet the unprecedented, uncertain times around us,” says Marc Rofsky, director of ready-to-wear buying at Moda Operandi. “At the same time, New York is becoming the main stage for a group of burgeoning talents who are learning to straddle creativity, desirability, and commerciality.”
Many designers, from Proenza Schouler to Carolina Herrera, made reference to the “New York woman”, the elusive, on-the-go customer. “The undeniable New York-ness of the collections allow them to be easily imagined on real women living their lives — on the street, at gallery openings, and at galas,” Rofsky says. Brigitte Chartrand, chief buying and merchandising officer for Net-a-Porter, also emphasized this season’s wearability. “There is great energy in New York, particularly around emerging talent and contemporary collections,” she says. But this can result in collections that feel slightly one-note — a continuation of the “New York uniform” of tasteful, but safe, clothes.
Others presented collections grounded in memory and, crucially, lived experience. Ashlyn’s Ashlynn Park designed her collection as a study in the ways in which memories are transmitted in the clothes that we wear. Daniella Kallmeyer focused Kallmeyer’s show on notions of permanence, and the ways in which memories both last and transform. Like Allen and Li, both designers were applauded for the wearability and desirability of their Fall/Winter 2026 offerings. Cult Gaia’s Jasmin Larian Hekmat, who held her first NYFW runway this season, opened her show with a track of her mother singing. “Her voice is the first material of the collection,” read the show notes. “It carries memory, displacement, celebration, and endurance.”
While the clothes on the runways may have been made for — and rooted in — real life, rarely did the messaging this season reflect the reality in which the clothes are being presented. In the weeks leading up to NYFW, celebrities and brands called for an end to violence at the hands of ICE, speaking out at events and participating in the National Strike. It looked as though fashion might be on the verge of getting political again, with independent designers leading the charge, as they have historically done.
But at NYFW — a week known for its strong indie brand footprint — politics were glaringly absent. Diotima’s Rachel Scott, Campillo’s Patricio Campillo, and Christian Cowan were some of few designers to wear ICE Out pins at their shows, which many attendees and Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) leaders passed out and wore on jackets and handbags throughout the week as a show of solidarity.
Scott — who opened the week with her Proenza Schouler debut — was one of few to contextualize her show (for Diotima) in the current moment, and the only designer to create a collection in direct response. If her Proenza debut was an introduction, Scott’s FW26 collection for Diotima felt more urgent. She collaborated with the estate of Cuban artist Wifredo Lam, Scott’s favorite artist, as well as Refugee Atelier, a group to whom she was introduced by Gigi Burris, designer and founder of non-profit Closely Crafted (knowing Scott’s commitment to craft and craftspeople).
“Working with this work right now [by] a Cuban artist talking about anti-imperialism in this moment of imperialism, especially in our region and also what’s happening in New York and across America, it’s just been weighing on me,” Scott said after Sunday’s show. “It’s really terrifying.” Scott is dismayed to see so few designers engage politically at this moment. “If you have any platform of any form, you need to be saying something about what’s happening, especially in fashion, which operates in the realm of culture,” she said on Sunday.
Most references to the fraught US landscape were vague enough to not disrupt business as usual. Ashlynn Park alluded to the current moment when discussing her Ashlyn collection. “The American vernacular is very beautiful — probably more beautiful than other countries — because it’s the melting pot,” she told Vogue Business in the lead-up. “All different people bring their own journeys, cultures, and senses.” The multiplicity of America is a notion she repeated in her show notes. TWP’s Trish Wescoat Pound made reference to “these fraught times” in her notes on a collection for the New York City woman.
Tory Burch described her collection as “a meditation on what endures, especially in times of chaos and despair”, in her notes, and said after the show on Wednesday night that “the world is so chaotic, desperate, and sad” that she was drawn to familiar territory, like her dad’s corduroys. It seems that most designers are simply putting their heads down and focusing on work. It’s a survival tactic.
Here are the other takeaways from New York Fashion Week FW26.
- Locals with global potential. Buyers continue to look to New York as a hotbed for up-and-coming talent. Mytheresa chief buying and group fashion ventures officer Tiffany Hsu flags Kallmeyer and Lii as standouts. “Both demonstrate a compelling understanding of proportion and materiality, with a clarity of vision that feels highly relevant for the contemporary luxury landscape,” she says. “There’s a refinement to their execution that suggests strong global potential.”
- Resale made its mark. This NYFW, Vestiaire Collective and Poshmark made appearances: Vestiaire hosted a styling suite, while Poshmark asked editors and fashion insiders to curate picks from the platform, which has higher-end ambitions now with luxury veteran Elizabeth von der Goltz as CRO. In a smart move, The RealReal partnered with Zankov to sponsor the shoes for his show. “We’re known as a brand that people love to collect, and shoes are also something you want to keep forever,” designer Henry Zankov said backstage.
- TV star fever. While New York packs some star power, it’s not usually of the same caliber as Paris and Milan. But it’s found a growing niche when it comes to driving buzz to the front row: inviting of-the-moment TV actors. Throughout the week, celebrities from shows including Heated Rivalry, Tell Me Lies, The Pitt, Industry, I Love LA, Severance, Overcompensating and more hit the hot seats.
- Artists were the muse. In addition to Diotima, artists showed up across the schedule. As she does each season, Heirlome’s Stephanie Suberville collaborated with an artist on a print; for FW26, it was Mexico’s Angélica Moreno. Meanwhile, Carolina Herrera’s Wes Gordon cast artists like Amy Sherald, Rachel Feinstein, Hannah Traore and Ming Smith in his runway show. “It felt like a natural extension of my mood board this season, which was dedicated to women in the arts,” Gordon said after Thursday’s show.
Behind the Scenes of Ashlyn’s High-Stakes Show
