At New York Fashion Week, Hillary Taymour has made her mark by turning the runway into a stage for social commentary. As the founder and creative director of disruptive NYC-based brand Collina Strada, she’s staged shows with grass-covered catwalks, transformed heirloom wedding dresses into modern couture and even introduced AI-generated prints. This September, her Spring-Summer 2026 show on Thursday evening featured perhaps her most literal metaphor yet: every colorful Collina look was trailed by its shadow, a head-to-toe black duplicate styled to match in exact detail.
The concept was both technically demanding and symbolically direct. “The shadows represent the policies, histories and systems that trail behind, invisible to some, and glaring to others,” Taymour said on the Glossy podcast. The doubled styling — where every garment, accessory and piece of jewelry had to be designed twice — created a striking visual metaphor for the weight of political and personal choices. It also cleverly balanced commerce with commentary: Collina’s signature playful color remained, but buyers could also imagine the same silhouettes in a more commercial black.
For Taymour, runway makes sense only when it delivers that kind of layered message. “We show purely to continue the marketing of what Collina Strada is,” she said. “There’s a ton of attention on us at that moment for our shoppers.” The impact is measurable: the brand’s earned media value for a New York show is roughly $3 million, on par with a Marni presentation in Milan according to Taymoru. For an independent label, that reach justifies the investment.
Still, she’s long been clear-eyed about the risks. In a 2024 Glossy interview, she pegged the average cost of a show at $400,000, noting that, for designers without a strong concept, “it’s just showing clothes,” and “you shouldn’t do a fashion show.” She added that some young brands “spend a ton of money to make one jacket that is just an editorial piece and maybe isn’t going to sell,” when those funds may be better spent building core categories like trousers and jewelry.
That blend of creative storytelling and hard business calculation is shaping her next project: a fashion business masterclass on OnlyFans, which Hillary Taymour is joining as a creator. The announcement is tied to her brand’s Spring show, where Taymou walked the runway in a limited-edition “Level Up” OnlyFans T-shirt. In two sessions on the platform, set to launch before Paris Fashion Week, Taymour will share the kind of pragmatic lessons she had to learn the hard way. “Honestly, this business is so complex and delicate, and there is so much to learn,” she told Glossy. “I hope I can just give small doses of advice that will help the next generation.”
Taymour’s OnlyFans page will be free, with the classes behind a paywall — proceeds will be donated to charity. That approach is consistent with past projects: In late 2024, Taymour created holiday tree installations at the New York and Times Square Edition hotels using upcycled fabrics from her shows, with proceeds from the hotels’ seasonal cocktails directed to the Ali Forney Center, which provides housing to LGBTQIA+ youth. “With the climate of the world in such a complex state, we want to ensure that the queer youth community is provided with the care they need and deserve,” she said at the time.
The OnlyFans content will focus on gaps that traditional design schools like Central Saint Martins and Parsons typically overlook. For example, Taymour plans to address how to manage cash flow when production bills come due, how to redirect stock if a wholesale partner fails and how to evaluate whether a show, dinner or collaboration is the best use of limited funds. On the Glossy Podcast, Taymour recalled lying awake at night wondering how to find $50,000 to pay a factory, and stressed that designers must stay on top of invoices and forecasts. “If you’re going to be independent and not have a huge CEO or CFO, you’re not going to be able to continue what you’re making unless you’re on top of your numbers,” she said.
Taymour isn’t the first designer to experiment with OnlyFans. NYC brand Rebecca Minkoff used the platform to share behind-the-scenes previews of its namesake designer’s collections in 2021. Elena Vélez partnered with OnlyFans at NYFW in 2025, creating a dual-branded capsule of hoodies and tees. And Rick Owens recently opened an account, posting content to raise money for a trans shelter in France. But where those efforts leaned on exclusivity or spectacle, Taymour is using the platform to share knowledge, treating it as a business classroom for emerging designers.
The launch comes amid an uncertain business climate. Retailers have scaled back orders, and the bankruptcy of Ssense left many emerging brands without a key sales channel. Taymour, however, has insulated Collina Strada by prioritizing direct-to-consumer sales — which continue to grow year-over-year — and by leveraging collaborations and her Canal Street flagship, opened in 2024. “I just signed a new lease on a bigger studio so we can have more space to work,” she said on the Glossy Podcast. “The brand is growing, and I’m trying to be very conservative with the growth and how to navigate it.”
Taymour’s recent collaborations offer a blueprint that doubles as a curriculum. In February, Collina Strada released the RUFL Boot with footwear laboratory FCTRY LAb featuring sugarcane byproduct in its base. It also partnered with the Spanish fashion brand Desigual on “My Best Friend and I”, a nostalgia-driven collection made from recycled polyester and organic cotton, and launched biodegradable vegan handbags with biomaterials company TômTex in playful scrunchie and dog shapes. Each project combined experimentation with business strategy: costs shared across partners, visibility amplified and sustainability embedded in the product story.
The OnlyFans masterclass is aimed at anyone looking to bridge creativity with business reality. “It’s for anyone who is interested in being in fashion, small business owners and students,” she said.
Taymour’s hope is to offer the kind of mentorship she believes the U.S. fashion system fails to provide. “There are a lot of new designers launching brands who have to learn their lessons and make horrible mistakes and waste a lot of money,” she said in 2024. “There are also these amazing talents who have to take a desk job at some huge conglomerate because they’re not being supported and nurtured by the fashion industry.”
By turning to OnlyFans, Taymour is testing a model where access to knowledge is democratized, not gate-kept by tuition fees or insider networks, as can too often be the case in the fashion industry. “Everything I do with Collina is about making people think differently — about sustainability, about inclusivity, about what fashion can be,” she said. “This is no different.”
With her first two classes arriving before Paris Fashion Week, the masterclass extends the brand’s disruptive spirit into the new pathway of education. For young designers facing shrinking wholesale orders, rising tariffs and the pressure to self-finance shows, Taymour’s candid advice could prove as valuable as her unforgettable runway theatrics.
