What We Loved at New York Fashion Week
Luar’s feathered broaches, 5000’s melodramatic capes, Collina Strada’s bug eyes and more.
New York Fashion Week has officially concluded, and the fashion crowd’s photo dumps are likely beginning to clog your feeds with content from all over town (flick through ours here). At the top of the week, Todd Snyder took menswear aficionados uptown to the Academy Mansion for a smart start. In Chelsea, Christian Cowan debuted a dress made out of bubblegum, and Collina Strada’s Hillary Taymour designed a total “Fempire” complete with bug-eyed sunglasses and runway makeout sessions. Down in the Financial District, Luar’s audacious fashions stormed through a business lobby in corporate drag. In Brooklyn, Christopher John Rogers made a kaleidoscopic grand return to the New York calendar. And at The Shed in Hudson Yards, Thom Browne’s whimsical runway defied any claims that New York Fashion Week is dead.
In short, New York’s Fall 2025 circuit kept showgoers booked and busy. Amidst all the madness in the American fashion capital this week, here were the moments we loved the most.
Perfect Pairs
Umberto Fratini/Daniele Oberrauch/Gorunway.com/Vogue Runway
Umberto Fratini/Daniele Oberrauch/Gorunway.com/Vogue Runway
Umberto Fratini/Daniele Oberrauch/Gorunway.com/Vogue Runway
A trend we started to see at Fashion Weeks abroad earlier in the season: runway walks were not all done solo. Couples – romantic, platonic, both and neither – took to the runway together.
At Collina Strada, two brides strutted the runway in tandem, holding hands. Donning upcycled white wedding dresses, the couple posed for a joint photo before stopping midway down the runway for a proper wedding kiss and skipping down the rest of the catwalk. Similarly, at the Elena Velez show, one of the shadow woman models snaked around the winding set as her allured suitor followed her lead, absolutely captivated by his counterpart.
Thom Browne, meanwhile, paired two sets of models together for the last show of the week, aligning with the two trapped love birds in the center of the runway; two parka-cloaked models opened the show and perched themselves on a folded desk where they crafted origami flyers, while another pair of colorfully-lashed models held their blazers and strutted in-sync. To close out his show – and the entirety of NYFW – Browne kept the love flowing, handing a rose to his husband Andrew Bolton.
Fleeces Are Back at Sandy Liang
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Some might remember Sandy Liang’s highly covetable cheetah print fleeces which helped solidify the brand’s downtown it-factor and were once called “the hottest jacket in menswear” by GQ a short 6 years ago. This season, they’re back with a selection of entirely revamped corporate outerwear for the creative agency office job that every Sandy girl dreams of but doesn’t quite yet exist.
The newest iteration of fleeces included polly pocket pink zip-up vests, similarly colored quarter zips and co-ord miniskirts, 1980s-esque boxy cropped greys, and longer full zip tunic fleeces for the day-to-night enthusiast.
All Fashion Heroes Wear Capes
Calvin Klein Collection/Filippo Fior/Gorunway.com/Vogue Runway
Calvin Klein Collection/Filippo Fior/Gorunway.com/Vogue Runway
Calvin Klein Collection/Filippo Fior/Gorunway.com/Vogue Runway
Calvin Klein Collection/Filippo Fior/Gorunway.com/Vogue Runway
In the incognito spirit, a few designers experimented with capes for Fall/Winter 2025, from drapes over suits and tailored jackets to a mélange of models moving down runways with capes in hand. In Veronica Leoni’s Calvin Klein debut, she draped heavyweight monochromatic capes over a handful of menswear and womenswear looks. A sleek black cape comes lain over a matching floor-length trenchcoat, while later down the line, Leoni pairs a pleated cape atop an all-black women’s work jacket.
At 5000, Taylor Thompson also toyed with the accessory, having models walk the first part of the runway holding capes over their heads, later on dropping them to reveal that rather than standalone capes, the pieces are attached as trains to pairs of trousers.
Todd Snyder’s Lesson in Class
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Todd Snyder’s menswear took over the Upper East Side’s Academy Mansion to reveal a Fall 2025 collection that was just as smart as its backdrop. Inside the spectacular 1920s edifice, the likes of Brendan Fraser, Aaron Tveit and Antoni Porowski suited up in classic Snyder formals on the front row’s antique chairs; a hoard of curatorial menswear influencers were waking examples of the brand’s distinct sartorialism, and Brooklyn DJ Jivan Calderone proved its cool factor while mixing the show’s tunes on a massive slab of marble. Upon entrance, the scene was a lesson in class, much like the 65-look collection that stormed through it moments later.
In mode, the collection employed luxurious velvets, silk brocades and cashmere across a vivacious color palette of emerald green, aubergine, petrol blue and abundant brown hues. Across the line, navy herringbone Eisenhower jackets, coated cotton trench coats, denim blazers and mohair sweaters paired well with double-pleated wool trousers, flannel chalkstripe pants and linen-cotton shorts.
In the designer’s imagination, these ensembles incite curiosity—whether that’s for a jazzman heading to a gig at Le Bilboquet or a French tradesman playing pinball at the tabac (two more figurative muses that made it on Snyder’s vision board).
Bugging Out at Collina Strada
Sarah Schecker
Sarah Schecker
Sarah Schecker
Sarah Schecker
Sarah Schecker
Sarah Schecker
Sarah Schecker
Sarah Schecker
Sarah Schecker
While Hillary Taymour always leaves us captivated with her runway collections, it may have been the accessories that took the cake at this year’s show. In her “Fempire” Fall/Winter 2025 range, Taymour tapped into the trend of adventurous eyewear to give this season’s looks some supernatural flair. In the edgier range, models matched bodysuits, outerwear and formalwear with statement bug-eyed sunglasses.
In one look, a model places his pair of glasses over his pink lace balaclava, With the collection guided by the mantra “Be the star that you are,” some of the models rocked glasses attached to star-shaped headpieces. Even one of the brides chose to pair her ruffled white wedding gown with a pair of white sunnies.
Fur Is Out, Leather and Feathers Are In
Isidore Montag/Daniele Oberrauch/Filippo Fior/Gorunway.com/Vogue Runway
Isidore Montag/Daniele Oberrauch/Filippo Fior/Gorunway.com/Vogue Runway
Isidore Montag/Daniele Oberrauch/Filippo Fior/Gorunway.com/Vogue Runway
Isidore Montag/Daniele Oberrauch/Filippo Fior/Gorunway.com/Vogue Runway
Isidore Montag/Daniele Oberrauch/Filippo Fior/Gorunway.com/Vogue Runway
Isidore Montag/Daniele Oberrauch/Filippo Fior/Gorunway.com/Vogue Runway
Isidore Montag/Daniele Oberrauch/Filippo Fior/Gorunway.com/Vogue Runway
Isidore Montag/Daniele Oberrauch/Filippo Fior/Gorunway.com/Vogue Runway
Isidore Montag/Daniele Oberrauch/Filippo Fior/Gorunway.com/Vogue Runway
Isidore Montag/Daniele Oberrauch/Filippo Fior/Gorunway.com/Vogue Runway
If last year’s runways were overtaken by a newfound enthusiasm for fur, this season declared its love for leather and feathers.
Campillo kicked off earlier in the week with its debut New York Fashion Week collection featuring strong leather outwear, a sculpturally wind-swept leather scarf, chaps, and a finale jacket made entirely of phoenix-like feathers. Christian Cowan rounded out his collection of slinky evening wear with barely there feather accents and sculptural pieces.
Over at Luar, Raul Lopez balanced fine wool craftsmanship with structured disarray, arming his models with feathered broaches and structured feather headpieces providing airy balance to the heavier leather and upcycled fur pieces that stomped down the runway. Other models sported feathered handbags and belts that featured added jewels and trinkets resembling a lost collection one might find when looking into a bird’s nest.
Closing out the week, Thom Browne’s runway was filled with 2,000 origami birds topped off by a bird cage enclosed around an eponymous miniature. Browne is no stranger to this motif, even noting Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven as an inspiration for his Fall/Winter 2024 runway collection. This season, feathers lifted the models’ lashes while formal outerwear was embroidered with a selection of colorful wild birds and branches.
Neon on Neutrals at Coach
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Mocha Mousse may be Pantone’s color of the year but that didn’t stop Coach from adding their own neon twist to the neutrals trend. The Fall/Winter 2025 collection, which was inspired by the 1995 Larry Clark Film Kids, and emulated a bright, Gen-Z take on the city-dweller aesthetic which was paraded down the runway by an equally youthful and grungy cast of models.
The pieces included plenty of shrunken leather vests, mismatched argyle vests with patchwork pants, and sturdy trench coats, all in an array of rich neutrals. However, while this year’s official color and minimalism have continued to dominate the runway, Coach opted to brighten up the otherwise brooding color palette pairing many of the looks with neon sunglasses in an array of neon orange, yellow, and red.
Bubblegum and More Fun at Christian Cowan
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Ever-playful Christian Cowan also offered his personal rebuttal to the sea of muted hues that flooded the runway this New York Fashion Week. The standout of the collection was undoubtedly the over-the-top mini dress made entirely out of bright-colored silicone chewing gum. The Designer said in an interview after the show that he spent hours chewing and biting into each piece of gum imagining exactly how they needed to look.
Other, quite literal, standout pieces, included skirts made of stiletto heels and a stiletto bustier on a deep red evening gown. Cowan noted that the collection was inspired by a fabulous friend who recently passed, one who was never afraid of diving head first into a high fashion look and “committing to the bit” even when the bit is into hundreds of pieces of chewing gum.
