Dressing high and low
At NYFW on Monday, shows from designers across a spectrum of price points showed one common thread: Eveningwear is back.
The luxury womenswear brand Lafayette 148 held a star-studded presentation in the Meatpacking District, with appearances from Beanie Feldstein, Rachel Brosnahan and Karen Pittman. The dresses were flowy and elegant, inspired by gestural charcoal drawings. The walls were decorated with images of designer Emily Smith’s own hand-drawn charcoal illustrations to emphasize the point.
Smith said Lafayette 148’s customer is increasingly hungry for these elegant showpieces for special occasions, including weddings, galas and parties.
“We’ve had huge growth in special occasion wear,” Smith said. “Especially ‘revenge weddings’ [that were postponed from the Covid era]. Our clients have very full calendars. They’ve got events all the time. So we’ve done a lot of these high-low pieces that can be dressed up or down and are very versatile to match what she needs.”
That emphasis on versatile clothing extended to the custom womenswear brand Markarian. At the brand’s showroom on 20th Street in Manhattan, designer Alexandra O’Neill showcased a variety of ‘80s-inspired pieces ranging from casual daytime jacquard fabric to more elevated brocaded dresses.
“I definitely feel that there’s more desire for eveningwear, especially around weddings,” O’Neill said. “Part of that is just that people are doing way more around weddings than they used to. Sometimes you have a Thursday welcome event, a Friday daytime activity, a Friday evening rehearsal dinner, a Saturday wedding and afterparty, and a Sunday brunch — and each of those occasions requires its own outfit. So we’re making more things like the jacquard dress that you can wear as a casual daytime piece or with heels for an event in the evening.”
Women’s formalwear has been a growing category in recent months, and it’s projected to be a $250 billion market by 2029. An added benefit of this versatile dressing is that it keeps the aspirational customer with a smaller budget in the loop. Markarian’s jacquard dress, for example, is more affordable than its custom eveningwear but it can be worn in similar settings.
“The luxury market is so tricky right now,” O’Neill said. “It’s a semi-protected market, but I do think you’re losing a lot of those aspirational shoppers. You can’t really rely on wholesale anymore, so you just have to know your client really well.”
Kobi Halperin, founder and designer at his eponymous womenswear brand, said luxury brands need to figure out how to keep the customer’s attention when their wallets are under pressure and there are so many things competing for their financial resources.
“Consumers have a lot of options for what to do with their money,” Halperin said. “Not just other fashion brands, but also experiences, traveling — all that makes the pie for fashion smaller, and we all need to share it. But that forces us to be more creative.”
Fashion reacts to Sarah Burton’s appointment at Givenchy
Another big piece of fashion news broke early on Monday morning. Sarah Burton, the woman who spent 26 years at Alexander McQueen and 13 years as its creative director, was appointed creative director of Givenchy. Burton famously designed Kate Middleton’s Alexander McQueen wedding dress but left the brand last year.
All around NYFW on Monday, designers had nothing but praise to heap on Sarah’s career and excitement at what she’ll do in her new role.
“She’s so talented and I’ve admired her for a long time,” Markarian’s Alexandra O’Neill said. “She’s a perfect fit for Givenchy.”
Given recent discussions in the industry about “stunt hiring,” a sense among some fashion enthusiasts that luxury brands are hiring creative directors for their star power rather than their design skills, Burton’s hire is refreshing. She was trained in traditional design skills at Central St. Martins in London. Her work at Alexander McQueen was praised for staying modern while also keeping the brand’s traditional elegance intact.
But in many ways, Burton is still breaking ground.
“I love to see her in this role,” Kobi Halperin said. “This industry is focused on women as customers, but we still need more women in top roles. I also love that she is a veteran. In the past, we had more respect for experienced designers. It’s designers like her who influence and train the next generation.”
