This week, a look at what inspired New York Fashion Week designers for fall, including history, technology and customer behavior. Scroll down to use Glossy+ Comments, giving the Glossy+ community the opportunity to join discussions around industry topics.
At a time when everything old is new again, is anything really new?
As New York Fashion Week comes to a close, a resounding message is that designers — like everyone else — are feeling nostalgic. If they didn’t base their fall 2024 collection on their own childhood memories or coming-of-age era, they likely looked to a talent-turned-legend from decades past. There were also designers catering to their customers’ appetite for familiarity, upon realizing they often return to the brand because they know what they’ll find.
As throwbacks trend and shoppers get comfortable, it would seem that any innovation within the slow-to-change fashion industry has stalled. However, there were select examples of forward motion by brands that proved otherwise. And the newness they presented pointed to great industry possibilities rooted in sustainability, operational efficiencies and wearable tech.
Leaders from Another Tomorrow, Christian Cowan and Lafayette 148, among others, spoke about the new opportunities that advancements — by way of partners, or their own blood, sweat and tears — are providing their brands.
“We have more tools to work with,” said Elizabeth Giardina, creative director of B Corp-certified Another Tomorrow, while talking through the luxury brand’s fall 2024 collection on Tuesday. She was referring to the five fabrications that are newly at her disposal, following their recent, extensive development processes based on the brand’s stringent sustainability standards. The fabrics include organza, lace, velvet, corduroy and a bio-based, plastic-free leather alternative. The “leather” is made from rubber, other minerals and natural dyes including charcoal.
“It’s a lot of work for us to develop fabrics,” she said. “Partners will wind up changing a cotton source halfway through the development process, for example. And a lot of back and forth is required to get to a place where we can approve a fabric’s quality and ensure we can work with it.”
It’s hard, in large part, because there’s no playbook for simultaneously doing quality and conscious production to the nth degree.
“We’re approaching design from an ethical place — and that’s actual innovation; we’re not just focused on doing something no one’s seen before,” she said.
She added, “The brand works if we can scale it and prove to the industry that this is a way of working.”
Adobe was in a similar mindset when it linked with Christian Cowan. The two collaborated on a dress that closed the designer’s fall 2024 runway show on Sunday. The dress was powered by Adobe’s Primrose technology allowing its featured embellishments to change appearance, thus updating the dress’s overall pattern while worn.
A prototype dress featuring the technology first debuted at Adobe’s annual Max Conference in October. Later, Adobe took the concept on the road, showcasing it at the National Retail Federation’s Big Show conference in January.
“[The runway dress] is a marriage of art and science,” Dr. Gavin Miller, head of Adobe Research, said during a luncheon celebrating the collaboration on Tuesday. He noted that multiple NRF attendees told him that Adobe “really [needed] to work with a designer” to give the technology legs.
“In [partnering with Cowan], we learned from each other what it takes to make something that both technically and artistically works,” he said.
Cowan said he initiated the partnership after “doomscrolling” on social media and coming across Adobe’s “sick” prototype dress, which had gone viral. “Like any creative, I want to use all the emerging tools that are at my disposal,” he said.
But, he added, he has no interest in tech for tech’s sake.
“Often when fashion meets tech, it becomes this wild thing that only a few people on the planet would want to wear,” he said. “I wanted to do a dress that the chicest of the chic could wear, and also that people who love bold fashion could wear. And I think we achieved that.”
They could, but will they? The consumer demand for this type of fashion tech remains to be seen. However, the fact that “pink it and shrink it” is being replaced by actual collaboration between the art and science worlds reads as hopeful for fans of wearable technology.
Also on Tuesday, during Lafayette 148’s presentation at the Standard Hotel, CEO Deirdre Quinn talked about the company’s own means of innovation which have largely centered on its internal processes.
For example, with 70% of the company’s sales being direct-to-consumer, it’s constantly fine-tuning its operations to get in front of its shoppers’ demands, she said. That has included not only taking its marketing photography “vertical” by bringing it in-house, but also positioning the photo studio on the main floor of its headquarters, signaling its importance. The move was motivated by shoppers’ engagement around strong visuals on the brand’s e-commerce site and other digital channels.
“The future of retail is what the consumer decides, not me,” Quinn said. “She’s the one that’s going to tell us where she wants to shop and where she’s going to find what she needs, and we’re going to follow her there.”
She added, “Entrepreneurialism is what’s kept us afloat over the last 27 years. It’s an attitude and a mindset. We’re constantly inspired by and building around what’s next.”
But in the same conversations, Giardina, Cowan and Quinn also spoke about ways the past is currently inspiring them. Giardina said her main point of reference for the season was a 1980s photo of Susan Sontag looking “badass” while wearing a mix of casual and sophisticated clothing. And Cowan shared that his childhood astronomy lessons from his dad informed the stars featured in his recent collections, including fall. For Quinn, the nostalgia was all about her company’s shows of strength throughout its decades in business.
Nostalgia was decidedly a big theme of the week. Prabal Gurung also referenced his childhood, aiming to modernize his “fragmented memories” of the past through luxurious, boldly colored fabrics. And Tommy Hilfiger took inspiration from his 50 years of working in New York, which resulted in a collection of American sportswear classics that were presented to a soundtrack that included the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive.” Daniella Kallmeyer told Glossy that “relatable, yet aspirational” images of “1960s and 1970s ski style” informed her fall line. Meanwhile, Jason Wu and Stacey Bendt borrowed from artists: Wu did a deconstructed take on styles that intentionally called to mind fashion’s Geoffrey Beene and Charles James, and Bendet based her show on the works of Tom Wesselmann, whom she called “the father of pop art.”
But some designers opted to stay the course, rather than risk thinking too far ahead or behind.
“My shopper is not a girl who changes her style from season to season. We have our consistent, evolving brand pillars that she comes to us for, and she likes the familiarity,” designer Marina Moscone said.
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