Fashion Week in New York, one year later: 12 months after the last live fashion week, the bandwagon of the fashion shows restarts in the Big Apple from 14 to 17 February in an almost exclusively virtual format.
The system has adapted to life in lockdown, but continues to hope for a day when it will be possible to return to dressing as before the pandemic.
For the new fall / winter 2021-22 collection Alexandra O'Neill, the Markarian designer who dressed Jill Biden for the Inauguration Day, was inspired not only by China, but also by ancient Rome: draped tunics, velvets, brocades, gold, a wink to Bacchus, god of wine, all in the name of the comfort of clothes that can be worn at home as well as outside.
O'Neill, who studied mythology and classical art in college, became world famous on January 20: after dressing the new First Lady, her social following doubled overnight and traffic of the brand on the Moda Operandi platform recorded an increase of 570 percent.
Missing the usual Fashion Week setting, the New York week has shrunk and expanded at the same time, and many big names like Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacobs and Tory Burch have dropped out of the game.
Tom Ford, the president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, has created an "American Collections Calendar" which brings together "stars and stripes" signatures also scheduled outside the traditional dates of mid-February: Christian Siriano, LaQuan Smith, Prabal Gurung, Coach 1941 Oscar de la Renta and Michael Kors are staggered between the end of the month and mid-April.
In the meantime, Ford will close the dance on Wednesday 17 and then move on to Harlem's Fashion Row Summit the next day with a speech on
the increasingly topical theme of fashion dedicated to inclusion.
Other themes are starting to emerge:
sustainability, comfort, gender fluid, social commitment
.
Jason Wu
, one of the very few US designers to challenge the pandemic with a show for a few close friends in a vacant Noho shop transformed into a fruit and vegetable market for one evening, sent "immediately wearable" garments and a "preppy" inspired look to the catwalk how to dress in Connecticut, the state where the designer spent most of the months of the pandemic.
Social commitment for
Imitation of Christ, Tara Subkoff's brand
centered on the
"resurrection" of second-hand garments: the
designer who recently survived Covid presented clothes for men and women decorated with fringes and beads.
The entire collection went on sale in real time on
the second-hand branded platform "The Real Real"
with half of the proceeds donated to Greta Thunberg's organization Fridays for Future.
