You would be forgiven for thinking that the latest instalment of New York Fashion Week involved only a handful of headline-grabbing brands. Coverage was dominated by Savage x Fenty’s game-changing runway that celebrated femininity in all shapes, colours and sizes, Eckhaus Latta’s playful, pastel mesh knits, and by Telfar’s boundary-pushing rendition of what a fashion show can be — as the rain pelted down Telfar Clemens presented an immersive extravaganza of performers bearing his trailblazing unisex designs. However, for all these celebrated — and rightly so — collections, there were also some less widely covered shows and presentations from up and coming designers that turned heads for all the right reasons.
Here’s our pick of the ones to watch on the New York fashion scene — expect plenty of prints, deconstruction and fresh, spirited takes for SS19.
Sandy Liang
For her latest collection, Sandy Liang continues to mash breezy feminine froth with street-ready wearability. Her SS19 collection contains an interesting cross section of styles: from a soft dove grey fleece to a strappy leopard print mini dress, or a black puffa jacket with blue fringed cuffs to white Picnic at Hanging Rock-style dresses — it’s not an overstatement to say there’s something for everyone here. But although it might seem so easily trendy at first glance, there’s real potential in her ability to merge ladylike elegance with contemporary street savvy.
Snow Xue Gao
In the dark, red-carpeted setting of the Cantonese restaurant Jing Fong, Snow Xue Gao presented her smart, 1960s-inspired SS19 offering. Smatterings of feminine florals, pearls, sash belts and ribbons punctuated a collection defined by deconstructed tailoring. The LVMH Prize nominee combined romantic East Asian prints and patterns with reconfigured Western workwear resulting in an irresistibly eccentric culture clash.
Kim Shui
For her second runway show, the CSM graduate cranked it up a notch — this was the physical manifestation of the flame emoji. Where burnt orange and scorched umber, leopard print and tie-dye set the tone, sexy drapery, fluid silky hemlines, bodacious bare shoulders, shimmering hotpants, mini-dresses and va va voom bustiers took this collection next level. Underling the sizzling sensuality, however, was a focus on both a material and cultural unravelling — as exemplified by the insertion of a qipao collar on a thigh-grazing leopard print mini-dress.
Lou Dallas
Faded frills; frayed, uneven hemlines; cycle shorts were the strange, otherworldly elements that defined Lou Dallas’ SS19 collection. Drooping necklines, patchwork jackets, halterneck tops and stiff a-line dresses operated in designer Raffaella Hanley’s vision as fragments of a dream, or faint remnants of an old fairytale. These are not clothes noted for their wearability; as a brand Lou Dallas is much more interested in the mysterious, whimsical stories that clothes might impart, and the magic embedded in handmade garments.
Fotografie von Maansi Jain.