Here, ten moments from New York Fashion Week you might have missed:
Puppets and Puppets Says, “Cheese, Please.”
Each season, Puppets and Puppets is a feast for the eyes. In the past, the brand has shown Ferrero Rocher heels and chocolate-chip-cookie belts. Last season, models walked the runway in cake hats. “So I was like, Okay, food on the head works,” said designer Carly Mark matter-of-factly. This week, she showed Wisconsin cheese hats — an ode to her roots in the Midwest and, coincidentally, the Green Bay Packers game that was happening at the same time as the runway show. “I love a little lowbrow-highbrow,” she explained. “I wanted to design a Wisconsin cheese hat but in beeswax and beautifully sculpted.” She also designed cheese wedge shoes and threw in a wheel-of-Parm headpiece. “Because why not?”
—Emilia Petrarca
A Telfar “Press Conference” for the Ages
Telfar’s introduction of Telfar TV was an exhilarating journey — part performance art, part sincere. We will just have to wait and see what it *actually* is. Did I mention it has duffels?
—Asia Milia Ware
Thom Browne Is Back in the New York Groove
After Thom Browne’s show, which featured a make-believe garden with statuary — translated as gorgeously plain tulle dresses with trompe l’oeil Grecian drapery — I asked the designer if anyone planned to wear one of the dresses to the Costume Institute gala. He rather quickly and emphatically replied “no.” In hindsight, his reply makes sense: His more typically theatrical fashion was well represented at the Met, with Sharon Stone, for one, in a black embroidered costume. But, still, I wish some beauty had worn the uncharacteristic Browne: a pale-blue or deep-pink sheath in layered tulle with, say, a fabulous headpiece in black net by Stephen Jones.
—Cathy Horyn
A New York Moment at Eckhaus Latta
An Uber can make or break your show schedule. On Friday evening, the Cut’s team had to get from Coach on the far west side of Manhattan to Eckhaus Latta deep into Bushwick, a land- and water-crossing away, in about half an hour. Our poor driver tried valiantly, and despite a moment-by-moment update with the show organizers via text, we managed to pull up to the blocked-off street where the show was held just as it was under way. And you know what? It was unexpectedly, blessedly perfect. Standing against the metal railings blocking the show off from passersby, we had the ideal view: panoramic, unobstructed, complete. We saw it all as the sun set.
—Matthew Schneier
Sweats Are (Apparently) Here to Stay, According to Maryam Nassir Zadeh
The pandemic changed a lot of people’s style (including mine) to prioritize comfort. Maryam Nassir Zadeh, a New York–based cool-girl designer, showed a two-tone pair that made me feel seen for my current sweats-and-heels-combo obsession.
—A.M.W.
A Cheeky Proposition at Theophilio
Every so often, a look goes down the runway and you momentarily dissociate, picturing yourself in another time and space. As a model wearing a creation by Edvin Thompson of Theophilio turned the corner of the runway, I imagined myself far away — 1,500 miles away, to be exact, at the Blue Lagoon in Jamaica. Given that his collection was inspired by his Jamaican heritage, I would say it is safe to say it was a success.
—Joanna Nikas
Craft and Care at Elena Velez
Debuting for the first time during this NYFW season, emerging designer Elena Velez delivered a hauntingly alluring collection through a gallery-style presentation. Velez’s commitment to local craftsmanship and collaboration draws on her upbringing on the Milwaukeean docks, which feels right on the pulse of fashion’s recent revisitation of folk craft but with a distinctly unique voice that feels at once down-to-earth and achingly beautiful.
—Vivian Chuang
At Collina Strada, a Family Affair
Maybe because Collina Strada was on the first day of Fashion Week, Hillary Taymour’s rooftop-garden setting in Brooklyn, at dusk, and her extremely eclectic romping cast of friends and models — young people, older people, kids — served as a great blastoff. Plus, the mash-up of garden colors looked, well, fresh!
—C.H.
Chromat Takes New York Fashion Week to the Beach
On the last day of Fashion Week, Chromat, a bodywear label, had a pop-up show on Jacob Riis Beach, also knows as the People’s Beach, a popular destination for the queer, trans, and nonbinary community in New York City. It showed the latest collection in collaboration with artist and filmmaker Tourmaline, featuring all-red looks: swim skirts, monokinis, shorts, and swim bottoms with soft package pouches and matching bikini tops. The collection celebrated trans femmes, nonbinary people, and intersex people “who don’t tuck.”
—Andrew Nguyen
Moschino’s Rainbow Box Braids
Hairstylist Danilo was up till 1:30 a.m. finding the right accessories to go with his rainbow box braids. The gumball-like beads added just the right amount of zany, campy fun for a Moschino show.
—Kathleen Hou