MOLLY VANDENBERG
Special to the Leader
Fashion means something different for everyone. It can be someone’s form of self-expression, as well as a way to give someone a glimpse into your world. For fashion designers, it’s their art, and Fashion Week is the chance for designers to show off their work for the world to see.
New York, London, Milan and Paris each host a womenswear fashion week twice a year, with New York leading each season. Typically during New York Fashion Week (NYFW) international fashion collections are shown to buyers, the press and the general public. This fall’s NYFW took place from Sept. 8–15 for the spring/summer 2017 collections.
According to an article from Rolling Stone titled “5 Best Things That Happened at New York Fashion Week,” things weren’t looking so good for Kanye West’s debut of Yeezy Season 4. West should have earned praise for his show, mostly consisting of black models and led by runway models Chanel Iman and Teyana Taylor. Yet this all went down the drain, as most of the women on his runway were forced to stand for hours in record heat, and there are reports of some models passing out.
West was quickly overshadowed by Tom Ford’s return to the New York runway scene for the first time in six years. Ford treated his fans to a live-stream of the celebrity-filled event with the likes of Julianne Moore and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Ford also made his entire men and women’s collection available immediately to purchase online.
According to an article from The New York Times Style Magazine titled “The Top 10 Moments From New York Fashion Week,” “This season marked the beginning of an official shift: several big players including Tom Ford, Thakoon, Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren have adopted the straight-to-consumer model, where collections are available immediately after the show.” This practice is referred to as “see-now, buy-now.”
Christian Siriano, a “Project Runway” alum, made headlines by casting five plus-sized models in his show, which is a first for him at New York Fashion Week. Models Georgia Pratt and Precious Lee were among the women wearing his “capri-inspired” designs. This is an important step forward regarding size diversity in the fashion industry.
Ralph Lauren and Marc Jacobs closed off the week with a bang. Lauren literally stopped traffic on the penultimate day by shutting down a block on Madison Avenue, so models could turn the sidewalk into a runway.
Jacobs show included a parade of up-and-coming models, which included Kendall Jenner, Bella and Gigi Hadid and Karlie Gloss all wearing multi-colored dreadlocks. It’s currently being debated whether this look was offensive or considered “high art,” as it sparked a lot of controversy on Twitter.
Regardless of controversies, it’s always interesting to see the risks designers take and the unexpected things they put on the runway. It inspires anyone who’s into fashion to take more risks and not worry so much about what someone may think. If you really like those platform Doc Martens with the black velvet laces, life is too short to not wear them.