The Best of Spring 2021 New York Fashion Week

The debate over whether or not New York Fashion Week would happen this year raged up until nearly the last minute. In the end, most designers opted for digital presentations for their spring 2021 collections, although there were a several socially distant affairs as well. There were fewer large design houses than a typical fashion week, as many decided to skip this season, but this allowed more small and independent designers have a moment in the spotlight. Several designers opted for runway shows sans audience, like Eckahus Latta, who staged a presentation underneath the Manhattan Bridge and Ulla Johnson, who filmed models at Four Freedoms Park. A few hosted intimate live shows with audiences: Jason Wu presented his contemporary line on a rooftop with lush plants evoking the landscape of Tulum, which inspired his collection. Christian Siriano took it a step further, inviting a group to his home in Westport, Connecticut, for a socially-distanced backyard affair in which every runway look was complete with a mask.

The most popular option, however, were digital presentations, with short films like Kenneth Nicholson’s Grasp; Carolina Herrera and the house’s creative director Wes Gordon recorded a short conversation about the season; and Ralph Lauren put on a concert with Chance the Rapper that was pre-filmed in the brand’s Chicago flagship store. Like the couture shows, brands pushed digital innovations to present their clothes as beautifully as possible. Khaite’s creative director, Catherine Holstein, for example, experimented with augmented reality, sending “presentation boxes” to a handful of fashion editors and buyers that had scannable 3-D renderings of each piece, letting them examine the details as if it were real life. While we still may be facing the conundrum of being all dressed up with nowhere to go, the designers delivered a much-needed dose of beauty and fantasy. Ahead, the best looks from the first digital New York Fashion Week.