New York Fashion Week A/W 2024 heralds the start of fashion month, which sees subsequent stopovers in London, Milan and Paris in the coming weeks. It looks set to provide an energetic opening act: Peter Do’s sophomore collection for Helmut Lang began proceedings on Friday morning with a collection which mused on the dichotomy between armour and adornment, while Willy Chavarria – selected as part of the Wallpaper* USA 300 last year – rounded out the opening day with a collection that continued his evolution of one of the city’s most intriguing talents.

Here, Wallpaper* fashion features editor Jack Moss and contributing editor Tilly Macalister-Smith report live from the shows, selecting the best of New York Fashion Week A/W 2024 in our ongoing round-up. 

The best of New York Fashion Week A/W 2024

Willy Chavarria

Willy Chavarria’s shows have a kind of inexplicable magic which has made him one of New York Fashion Week’s most intriguing talents (the American designer was selected as part of the Wallpaper* USA 300 last year). In part, it is because he has played the long game – his career comprised design roles at American mega brands like Ralph Lauren before starting his eponymous label – allowing him to forge Willy Chavarria the brand at a moment he was confident in his hand and design codes, which largely centre on the multiplicity of the New York street (where he now calls home) alongside his Mexican-American upbringing in Fresno, California. And, having shown for several seasons, it is paying off: the designer won the 2023 Menswear Designer of the Year at the CFDA awards and has become a red carpet fixture (Billie Eilish is a particular fan), while his collection will soon be stocked in Barney’s and Saks. It lent proceedings a buzzy, celebratory air, backdropped by rows of church candles and religious ephemera which have long been a reference point for the designer. Chavarria’s hallmarks continued to be honed – notably a voluminous silhouette, which at once recalls baggy streetwear and the abundance of traditional couture – though freshness was struck in new fabrications (like houndstooth wool used across leaner trousers and a highly desirable elongated overcoat) and mood of refinement, seeing sweaters slung elegantly around the neck or some brilliant tuxedo- style tailoring, dramatically pitched at the lapel. JM

Helmut Lang

‘Protection versus projection,’ said Peter Do of his sophomore collection for Helmut Lang, which opened New York Fashion Week on Friday afternoon. ‘The way we protect ourselves is the way we define: armour or adornment?’ The designer continued this message via the printed collection notes, written in the same all-caps logotype Lang utilised in his own campaigns. So there were shirts and trousers which appeared crafted from bubble wrap – a suggestion of both protection and sensuality, exposing the inner workings of the garment, like pockets and zips beneath – while other knits rose up to engulf the face and body against the elements. A crescent-shaped bag, meanwhile, looked as though it was made for the model to rest her head on for comfort, like an aeroplane pillow, alongside technical vests which recalled the ‘bulletproof’ vests which appeared in Lang’s archival collections. As for the impetus behind the collection, Do said it emerged from a continuing observation of New York dress codes; the rigours of living in the city require both a need for protection and exhibition in the clothes people wear. ‘In a world of chaos, a system of dressing,’ the designer concluded of the collection, which though astutely mined hallmarks of the Helmut Lang archive, felt sometimes missing the unique frisson of sensuality and subversion which defined the brand’s seminal 1990s collections – a balance better struck by Do in his collections for his eponymous brand, which he will show later this month, on February 27, in Paris. JM

Stay tuned for more from New York Fashion Week A/W 2024