Proving that in fashion being “out” doesn t have to be a permanent condition, Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne made their return to the runway today with a superlative fall 2026 menswear show. Since founding Public School in 2008, the brand has had several starts and stops. Among the highs were winning the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund prize and being presented the CFDA Swarovski Award for Menswear in 2013. Two years later the designers were tapped to revive DKNY. At some point it seems that it all became too much. As the duo wrote in the mock New York Times edition heralding their return that was placed on each seat at the show, “We needed a pause. A break which forced us to remember why we started this in the first place.”
And so Chow and Osborne are back, but they don’t want to talk about where they’ll go from here. As Chow explained, “The title of the show is Everything Is Now, and it’s about just seizing the moment.” That’s not meant as a rah-rah declaration of carpe diem, but an acknowledgement that, as Chow said, “everything is upside down and the things that you thought you could depend on and that you thought were going to be there in two years, a year, two months, no longer exist. And so we talk about the action being right at our doorstep. There’s a revolutionary spirit there to say, ‘Hey, it’s time to roll our sleeves up and get to work in terms of that resistance.’” (Note the fingerless gloves and Kangol-like hats by Gigi Burris.)
Public School was always meant to represent Chow and Osborne’s needs and wants, which naturally have changed as they have. “We wanted to come back with a really, really sharp focus, and for us, that was just concentrating on menswear,” Chow said in a pre-show interview. “It’s really just a super personal collection. It was just Max and I—no teams, no assistants.” As before, the pieces were not only made in New York, but represent and celebrate this world in a city. The crackling energy in the room was heightened by the stunning soundtrack and the attitude of the models, who strode down the runway with IDGAF confidence and swagger. Altogether it was a reminder of why we love it here.
The show opened with a dark wash Canadian tuxedo: the cut and fit of this alternative suiting one-upped the usual utilitarian reading of the fabric. Materials were the main story here. There were luxe blue leathers, a flecked Prince of Wales check cut into a boxy blazer with an asymmetric close, a satiny zip-front in Big Apple red, and a pin-striped half zip. Pants were higher rather than lower waisted and mostly straight cut. These designers love a pair of shorts and showed neatly tailored ones as pants alternatives and also layered them over matching pants.
A series of coats was perhaps representative of the maturity, in age and experience, of Chow and Osborne. The idea was that you could throw one on over anything. “That sense of ease, you take it from New York. You don’t have to be dressed up at all times,” said Osborne. A sense of swag, however, is non-negotiable.
