The arrival of New York Fashion Week S/S 2025 heralds the arrival of a month-long stint of runway shows, which will continue through September with stops in London and Milan, before culminating in Paris with a nine-day schedule ending on 1 October 2024. By then, designers will have offered a vision for the season ahead, including a roster of creative directors making their anticipated debuts – most notably ex-Gucci designer Alessandro Michele, who will make his mark on Roman house Valentino with a show in Paris at the end of September.

Before all that, though, New York Fashion Week makes for a buzzy opening act. Beginning proceedings is Pieter Mulier’s Alaïa, transplanting from Paris to New York for a show on the evening of 6 September that celebrates a runway show Azzedine Alaïa held in 1982 in the city, with a guest list including Andy Warhol and Paloma Picasso (this time, expect an equally starry line-up of Mulier’s own notable muses). Also shifting cities is COS – the London-based label returns to New York after a show last season at Rome’s Corsie Sistine – and Off-White, which will show on Sunday 16 at Brooklyn Bridge Park, shifting from its usual slot on the Paris schedule.

Elsewhere, Tory Burch will continue her Torynaissance – we explored Burch’s creative renaissance and reach for a younger wave of consumers in the August 2024 ‘Creative America’ issue of Wallpaper* – and Willy Chavarria will show his latest collection, no doubt cementing his reputation as one the city’s most distinct voices with a show at the New York Stock Exchange on the evening of 6 September. Rounding out the schedule will be shows from Coach, Michael Kors, Tommy Hilfiger and Helmut Lang, alongside rising names Zankov and Diotima.

Here, reporting live from New York, Wallpaper* fashion features editor Jack Moss picks the best of New York Fashion Week S/S 2025 in Wallpaper’s ongoing round-up.

The best of New York Fashion Week S/S 2025

Ralph Lauren

(Image credit: Courtesy of Ralph Lauren)

Ralph Lauren travelled to The Hamptons in Long Island to eke out the last of the dwindling summer season at the beachside locale long synonymous with Lauren’s all-American sense of style (it is also a beloved escape for the designer, who calls it his ‘home away from home’). Transporting attendees out of the city on the eve of fashion week proper (the week starts today, 6 September 2024) to an equestrian complex in the hamlet of Bridgehampton, the collection – presented in a specially erected tent open at the end to show the white picket fences beyond – was a strong argument by Lauren for honing in on what you do best. So there were gleaming tennis whites, colourful Polo rugby shirts, preppy blazers and caps, alongside a slew of breezy, bohemian-tinged eveningwear, worn by a cast which included Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell and Liya Kebede (alongside some bouncing Ralph Lauren-clad kids). ‘The Hamptons is more than a place… it has been my home, my refuge and always an inspiration,’ said Lauren, who, after the show, opened up a recreation of New York’s Polo Bar for the starry guest list, which included Dr Jill Biden, Jude Law and Kacey Musgraves. It made for a joyful fashion week opener, and, with a busy week ahead, it was difficult to coax guests away and back to the city.

Proenza Schouler

(Image credit: Courtesy of Proenza)

There was a shift at Proenza Schouler this season, and not simply because designers Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez had chosen to move the show from its usual weekend slot to earlier in the week (as such it fell before New York Fashion Week officially began). After a mood of reduction in recent seasons – where streamlined silhouettes and pared-back design sought to strip garments back to their essence – the New York-based duo wanted to set a more radical course, quoting Pablo Picasso’s maxim that ‘every act of creation is first an act of destruction’. Here, as models stepped into the sunlit Tribeca loft, McCollough and Hernandez added layers of surface interest and play, using diaphanous, handkerchief cuts as canvases for patchworks of fabric, some printed, some striped. Other knit pieces fell away into disintegrating tassels, while bouncing fronds emerged from skirts and dresses. Despite this, there remained a seductive clarity to the pair’s vision, with a section of draped, gently plissé evening gowns – recalling the work of French couturier Madame Grès – providing a through line to the cool minimalism of their recent seasons.

Stay tuned for more from New York Fashion Week S/S 2025, on wallpaper.com and our Instagram, @wallpapermag.

cfda.com