The Evening Market at New York Fashion Week
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Naeem Khan
A single rose placed on each chair at Naeem Khan’s 20th anniversary show was a fitting gesture given it took place on Valentine’s Day. But the designer was careful not to whack his audience over the head with a lovey-dovey theme.
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“It’s a love of what I do,” he explained backstage. “It’s not that I’m putting hearts or roses on my collection. It’s just the love of fashion, the love of where I come from, mixing things that I grew up with in India, and making it modern.”
The heir to a textile manufacturing company, Khan’s love of craft is woven into his DNA and it showed in his openers, which featured gold hammered discs and fringes inspired by “desert gypsies” that jingle-jangled down the runway.
From there, embroidery inspirations bounced around, ranging from ’20s Art Deco (a common theme this week) on a bionic-looking catsuit to baroque with chandeliers hanging from a collarless smoke-gray evening coat. Khan also zeroed in on India’s national bird, the peacock, recreating their feathers with pointed paillettes on a few of his dresses and capes.
Backstage, Khan described his women as “rare birds,” so ostrich feathers encased models for the finale. These didn’t quite soar, lacking the sultry appeal of, say, a cashmere needle-point floral jumpsuit or bias-cut gown with swirling silver stripes inspired by his days under Halston’s watchful eye. Either would look fabulous on former Halstonettes Alva Chin and Pat Cleveland, who came out in support, giving the designer a standing-O as he made his bow, dog in tow.
During a fall collection preview, Reem Acra said she’s been feeling more introspective lately, and given the current chaos going on in the outside world — the financial one in particular — decided to take things indoors.
So to her basement she went, photographing this season’s look book in the unfinished space, which she is turning into a museum for her personal archives. Acra plans to host intimate gatherings there once it’s finished, which got her thinking about an easier approach to dressing up.
“You have to look glamorous, but tamed down at the same time,” she said of the style she’s been dictating to her clientele. “I think there is room to be embellished and to celebrate, but in a very moody way.”
Mood meant tones of brick, teal and amethyst for mikado caftans with delicate crystals or lacy insets. These were fit for the Gatsby goddess Acra envisioned, while some of the more lavish trumpet gowns with velvet trim and Chrysler Building beadwork felt a bit severe. More ethereal was a beautiful grayish batwing kimono with a plunging V-neck, which looked as though it jumped out of an Erté illustration
Addressing the modesty trend that’s been circling in evening circles, there were twinset black crepe dresses with exaggerated white collars and cuffs. These looked like something out of Karl Lagerfeld’s closet — someone should wear one at this year’s Met Gala for the museum’s retrospective on the designer’s body of work.
Pamella Roland
Pamella Roland likes to base the overall mood of her collections on her family’s most recent travel destination. There was one inspired by the Galapagos and another by the Côte-d’Azur — and fall saw her head to the Arctic Circle.
While there, Roland took a polar plunge, hence an opening processional in an array of watery blues. The most demure was a simple long-sleeved A-line dress with hand-cut organza petals, giving way to more shocking moments inspired by the Northern Lights, which Roland jokingly admitted she didn’t know the scientific name for was aurora borealis.
This natural phenomenon seems to be attracting event dressers like gnats this season. For Roland, it meant tailored separates with her signature bell sleeves in fuschia and violet and crystal starburst embroideries.
Dresses with illusion paneling treaded on thin ice, veering into figure skater territory, while heftier taffeta ones in garnet and emerald took the winter theme to extremes as well.
A warm breeze blew in courtesy of a draped chiffon caftan in smoky tobacco. It read more North Africa than South Pole, and could possibly be a nod to next season’s inspiration. Backstage, Roland mentioned she and her family just returned from holiday in Morocco.
Jazz Age heiress, poet and activist Nancy Cunard was a muse to many — the likes of sculptor Brancusi and photographer Man-Ray were all captivated by her eccentric beauty, seeking to capture it in their own respective media. This season, Bibhu Mohapatra took up their torch, doing the same through his fashion.
“She came into my life and never left,” he said before the show. Mohapatra discovered Cunard on one of her family’s shipping lines going from New York to Southampton. With nothing to do, he read her biography and says he was hooked. Like the designer, Cunard avidly supported craftwork from Indigenous people, making them fashionable among Europeans, who dubbed hers the “barbaric look.”
This led Mohapatra to bohemian eclecticism colored in claret red (or the Queen’s red, as he noted) set against chartreuse on swishy knife-pleated caftans, drop-waisted bustle-skirts in faille and sheer pieces with bejeweled fawns. One in black was especially alluring layered over cigarette pants and a bra top, striking the right tension between masculine and feminine that Mohapatra loves.
They were all complemented by armfuls of Cunard’s signature bangles as well as lengthy scarves and stoles with silk fringes, courtesy of a partnership between the designer and Indian cashmere manufacturer Janavi launching at his new retail store.
Cucculelli Shaheen
Anthony Cucculelli and Anna Shaheen started 2023 off on a high note by creating the look pop songstress Fletcher wore for her duet with Miley Cyrus on her NBC New Year’s special, live broadcast from Times Square.
The pair kept the party going with their fall show hosted by Webster Hall. A nightclub and concert venue with East Village grit, it set the tone for a glam-rock parade set to the musical stylings of Breanna Barabara.
Diva dressing should be Cucculelli Shaheen’s calling card. Somewhat like the wrap-dresses of former boss Diane von Furstenberg, the pair’s glass-beaded slips are seductive, but not raunchy, and more importantly, easy-to-wear. They were shown here in gunmetal, champagne and gold; some accented with cutouts put the hip-bone on full display.
Handkerchief tops and low-slung trouser suits, which Cucculelli and Shaheen say are a point of expansion, did the same, while tulle leggings and detachable floor-length sleeves were added to allow for conceal or reveal possibilities.
A through motif was a Baroque-inspired sun echoing the collection’s title, “Les’ Radiant.” It certainly echoed the potential of this new brand for young audiences, despite its high price point.
Andrew Kwon
Andrew Kwon may live amid the bright lights of the big city, but for his second eveningwear collection, the demi-couture designer was drawn toward those he spotted flying 10,000 feet above his small hometown of Aurora, Colorado.
“I remember when I looked out of the plane, it was all pitch black, but you would see these pockets of light,” he said during a preview. “There was something about it that looked a little mysterious.”
Mystery played into his use of illusion tulle layered over sequin net fabric mimicking grid-like flickers on a princess-style ball gown. Meanwhile, the colors of another aurora — as in the borealis — inspired his plum and emerald green column sheaths in silk faille.
Kwon took the hems on these to the floor, noting it is something his older clientele is looking for. She also wants more versatility, so the designer offered it here with what he is calling the “arm cape,” detachable bows and cloud-like ruffs that can be worn in place of a shawl.
Save for these slight modifications and additions, Kwon chose again to recut the same styles from his bridal line. His attention to detail is what sparkles but he should consider bringing it to something new.
Kate Barton
Kate Barton wanted to focus on her design technique rather than a theme or inspiration for her fall 2023 collection, delivering modern eveningwear that utilized her engineered fabrics, which she’s able to drape with minimal use of seams or darts.
“We’re doing pieces that give the illusion of certain silhouettes and shapes while being comfortable and super versatile,” Barton explained. “And being able to style [them] in different ways, like this can be a red carpet or a night out — just being able to bring a modern approach to eveningwear, that was the main goal of the brand.”
Barton delivered several draped gowns this season in a cool color palette as well as her first separate pieces, such as draped black trousers with a matching shrug. Her collection also offered several detachable pieces that can be worn on the gowns and separates, like detachable leather corsets and metal details.
Titled “Gilded Romance,” Tadashi Shoji’s collection was all about celebrating, “the grandeur of occasion dressing.”
“The palette is jewel tones, but more muted for a luxury feeling,” Shoji told WWD of the lineup, which included new mesh rhinestones, 3D floral constructions and eyelash-fringe textures, implemented to amplify the opulence. For instance, a strong sheer gold diamante mesh gown with cascading sleeves, or an eyelash-fringed gowns (noted to mimic fur) in pale pink, ruby red and emerald green (also seen as the skirts of velvet bedazzled gowns). The designer also stressed the importance of the looks’ wearability, designing each occasion piece with comfort in mind.
Badgley Mischka
“We’ve always been about romanticism, and ruffles and flourish…grand gestures,” Mark Badgley said backstage, with James Mischka adding that they also looked to Italian sculpture and furniture as a seasonal guide. It boiled down to event dressing with a wow factor.
Short frocks with a wing detail over the shoulder in bright tulle or a dress with cascading paillettes on a bell skirt: every look had a little touch of that Badgley Mischka flourish that made it special; a sleeveless gown with a rosette at the bust, belted green sequin suiting, outfits made to party. Prints were pushed to the side for the season, but not all lost with a photographic print of a rose making up the skirt of a youthful gown.
The duo ended their show with all the models retaking the runway and posing in a tableau while music blared, giving guests a chance to get up from their seats and examine the collection up close. “It’s the duty of these dresses to be a memory, to be everlasting,” Badgley said. “Life’s too short.”
Markarian
Alexandra O’Neill reflected on her own family history for her latest lineup of party dresses presented at the quirky antiques- and flower-filled townhouse venue at 632 Hudson, where Nicky Hilton, Cynthia Rowley and Candace Bushnell were among those who came out to support the Markarian designer.
“During most of my history in the fashion world, designers didn’t talk to each other,” said Rowley, wearing a piece by O’Neill, who also attended Rowley’s fall 2023 comedy show.
“My grandmother passed in October, so I have been thinking a lot about her and my grandfather living in Astoria in the 1940s. My grandmother taught me to sew and my grandfather had a fur shop. And every night they would go out dancing he’d make her stand on the kitchen table and drape a dress on her,” O’Neill said of her vintage inspiration, which led to an alluring collection of jazzy crystal mesh or crystal embroidered pieces; feminine fit-and-flare styles in metallic florals, some with straps sliding off one shoulder; a gorgeous orchid-and-black draped taffeta dance dress, and a grouping of all-white looks, such as a mother of pearl sequin-embroidered long-sleeved crop top and simple satin draped maxiskirt that would be perfect for a modern bride.
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