An exciting part of the New York shows is the discovery factor. The week presents a mix of industry veterans, but just as important are the new talents, some of whom are making their first debut. Here, WWD’s spotlights the design stars to watch.
Agbobly
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“Grateful,” said Jacques Agbobly, a few minutes before his mother walked into his presentation, his first during New York Fashion Week. The newcomer – winner of WWD’s 2023 One to Watch award – is having a banner week, adding an LVMH Award nomination to his growing accolades. The fall served as a “bienvenue,” he said, a welcome to his work, his culture and his skills at a time when many industry eyes are on the brand.
Agbobly grew up in Chicago and has Togolese roots – and his collection blends the two seamlessly. Western shirts with precise stitching came from his introduction to America through Western films; the same can be said for other appropriate ideas, with flashes of whimsy via the Togo flag colors. Elsewhere, he proposed a colorful checkered trench linking his two cultures. His specialty knitwear, formerly known as Black Boy Knits, was also in attendance, featuring a saturated, colored intricate top over green wide-leg statin pants.
A brightly colored evening look with a tiered skirt and ruffles was exuberant and showed that he has pushed to give more reach to his work, which will now be sold wholesale. All signs point to good things to come from the growing New York-based brand.
Colleen Allen
Colleen Allen’s debut of her eponymous line was perhaps one of the most anticipated new collections this season. During a showroom preview, the designer’s fall lineup proved that while she may have cut her teeth in menswear (at The Row and Calvin Klein, under Raf Simmons), she certainly knows a thing or two about women’s clothing for each woman.
Allen said her designer-priced brand, which is produced in New York, was a personal exploration of femininity for the first time in her work, with an emphasis on breaking down and understanding who she is as a woman.
“It was about a spiritual embodiment in my daily life. I loved the witch archetype because of its femininity. It’s not about the cliché version of what she is, but about this elevated, spiritual existence as a woman,” she said.
Color – fiery orange, bright red, purple – was a starting point for autumn. Ditto her unexpected fleece fabrication, which was cut into elevated, tailoring jackets (lined with a combination of canvas and silk twill), column skirts, detachable sleeves and caps. Allen combined the tailoring moments and rich operatic capes with softer styles à la Victorian cotton voile bloomers, brushed-wrap wool jersey dresses and ‘raw’ sheer silk and lace tops and skirts.
The designer said she plans to intuitively expand the line in the future as she experiments with polar fleece (and other “unconventional” materials) and color.
Lii, Zane Li
Chongqing native Zane Li touted a remarkably strong first print-only collection, laying the foundation for the future of his Lii label. Well finished in striking shades of white, mint, cardinal red and midnight blue, the line could potentially jump straight from its showroom shelves to the shop floor – rare for a 23-year-old designer.
The FIT graduate has a minimalist aesthetic that doesn’t come close to “stealth wealth.” With prices dropping between $300 and $1,000, he has his eye on the girl who longs for Phoebe Philo’s artsy, contemporary look but can’t afford it. Citing Balenciaga and Madame Grès as references, Li said: “I love their feminine silhouettes, but I want to take out the preciousness. I want to bring the practicality and versatility of menswear into my womenswear.”
Li’s technique is based on flat patterns, which are distorted, draped, loosened and reattached, creating interesting shapes that merge mid-century couture volumes with ’90s sport. This season’s centerpiece the ringer-T was made of poly-taffah, lined with strong cotton toile. The idea of dressing in a T-shirt first was expanded into an oversized dress in the same material with split sleeves that cinched to the hem for a fantastic balloon shape. To top it all off, there were swing-style collarless anoraks, nylon miniskirts and tunics with origami side panels that hugged the body or folded elegantly towards the floor.
As we delved further into technical fabrications, came a boat-neck T-shirt in transparent PTU, “somewhere between vinyl and plastic,” Li said. It had a clinical look to contrast a fluffy two-tone skirt, the only piece with an interesting textural component. He should play more in that realm in the second round.
Meruert Tolegen
On Tuesday morning, New York-based designer Meruert Tolegen presented her first runway show on the CFDA New York Fashion Week calendar with a soothing, romantic-tinged fall collection.
Since debuting her eponymous label in 2020, the bioscientist turned designer has focused on fusing elements of her Kazakh culture and childhood, and current life in New York, with whimsical and often historical fashion touches.
“I’ve been exploring a lot with textures over the past few seasons. This time I haven’t shifted focus: I’m still mixing fabrics, but in a smarter way. In the creative aspect, I wanted to balance that with creating those interesting shapes and prints, which add to the quirkiness,” she explained backstage. Her whimsical ‘floral’ print, known to have been created with AI tools and seen on the season’s countless cute dresses or quilted topcoats, is actually a motif of flying ghosts,’ which ties into that quest to yourself, which is very much the season. a little about.”
Tolegen said she looked back to the bustiers, fitted shapes and interesting volumes of her first collection to create the fall mix of calico dresses, voluminous coats and side bags (beautiful in white smocked embroidered lace with a silk frame or black velvet). While a few pieces felt a little bare for the runway, her bow-adorned, bead-embroidered and ruffle-trimmed romantic dresses were all winners. Ditto a flocked white ball skirt with matching bralette and bed jacket.
She also introduced five menswear looks with tailored shirts, jacquard jackets, slightly deconstructed tailoring and sweaters that used the same elements of her womenswear to “let men be whimsical too,” she said.
Nigel Xavier
For Nigel Xavier, participating in the Netflix fashion competition ‘Next in Fashion’ was the right platform to showcase his talent as a fashion designer. Xavier’s upcycled, unique designs ultimately struck a chord with judges and viewers, as the designer won the show’s second season last year.
“It was the perfect opportunity for me to just show all my talents, because I always approached [design] from more of an art point of view than just fashion design,” he said. “There I could actually only show one piece and I didn’t have to worry about the business side of it. It was tailor-made for how I dealt with fashion all the time. Then I got the win and now I’m building the brand to be even more at the level of the fashion house, instead of just staying in the fashion of what I’ve done before.”
Xavier recently debuted his latest collection, titled the Tapestry Collection, which continues the nostalgic vibe he always infuses into his designs. The limited-drop collection offers puffer jackets and pants made from upcycled tapestries depicting angels, wolves, eagles and other motifs.
The designer explained that he wants to continue offering his collections in limited numbers in the future to maintain a level of exclusivity, and that he has plans to further expand the interiors side of the brand.
Kate Barton
For her fourth collection, Kate Barton continued to hone her futuristic brand (as recently worn by Heidi Klum), expanding from eveningwear to more ready-to-wear, sculptural jewelry and accessories.
“I wanted to grow this Kate Barton world, where the boundaries between digital and reality are blurred. Many of our social media followers think our pieces are AI [generated] so we really wanted to build on that,” she said of using her sculptural draping technique (which doesn’t use seams or seams) on knits, outerwear and tailoring with an architectural, 3D image effect and some serious sex appeal in the tradition. by Thierry Mugler.
One of the new ready-to-wear highlights was a white bustier with removable molded mirror plate, worn over a navy blue liquid satin skirt; a light blue suede top with draped and tied effect over black liquid satin trousers; a black cropped and pleated sweater over an asymmetrical green wool skirt, and an off-shoulder leather top with a boomerang-like effect at the neckline paired with a mini skirt.
Barton does not think in terms of themes for inspiration, but rather sculpts clothing instinctively, more like an artist, and then designs it. She was one of the few designers to bring futurism to the fashion conversation this week, also incorporating AI fits into her presentation format, and should be shortlisted to collaborate with a tech platform.
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