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Why New York Fashion Week Feels Relevant Again
For a while, New York Fashion Week seemed to have lost some of the energy that once made it one of fashion's essential capitals. This season, it felt different.
Article by Gili Biegun
16/9/26
Images courtesy of Magda Butrym
Spring/Summer 2027 brought together established New York names with international designers and younger labels, and there was a clear sense of fashion reconnecting with its own history. The 1990s are still everywhere, while the late 2000s are returning through familiar silhouettes, minimalism, lingerie dressing and even the revival of old It-bags.
New York has plenty of its own fashion history to revisit. These five collections showed why the city feels interesting again.
Proenza Schouler
Rachel Scott presented her second collection for Proenza Schouler in the former Barneys building, a fitting location for a brand whose early history is closely connected to the legendary New York retailer. The collection explored the way New York women actually dress, mixing evening pieces with everyday clothes and flat shoes.
The biggest nostalgia moment came with the return of the PS1. First introduced in 2008, the iconic Proenza Schouler bag has been reworked as the PS1 Walker, with a softer, more rounded shape and updated construction.
It is a perfect example of the current fashion mood: not simply bringing the past back, but making it relevant again.
Images courtesy of Proenza Schouler
Khaite
Catherine Holstein softened the Khaite woman for Spring/Summer 2027. Kaia Gerber opened the show, followed by a collection of lace, lingerie-inspired pieces, floral embroidery, corsetry and leather. The inspiration came from Venice, with references to the interiors of the Gritti Palace translated into the clothes.
Despite the Venetian inspiration, the collection still felt very New York. The combination of leather, fitted silhouettes and lingerie naturally connected with the ongoing return of 1990s fashion codes.
Khaite did not abandon its identity. It simply made it softer.
Images courtesy of Khaite
Magda Butrym
Magda Butrym arrived in New York for her first runway show, coinciding with the opening of her first SoHo store. Her Spring/Summer 2027 collection, Natalia, explored femininity, desire and the female gaze through the designer's signature combination of strong tailoring and sensual dressing.
Broad shoulders, leather, sheer dresses, lace and feathers were contrasted with domestic references, including the apron, inspired by Butrym's memories of women dressing up at home.
The collection was glamorous, feminine and slightly excessive, proving that fashion does not always have to be minimal to feel modern.
Images courtesy of Magda Butrym
Diane von Furstenberg
For Spring/Summer 2027, Henry Zankov presented his debut collection for Diane von Furstenberg, taking the house back to one of its most essential ideas: the body in motion.
Zankov's collection was built around long, lean silhouettes, jersey, chiffon, bias-cut silk and scarf dressing. The body was wrapped, revealed and reinterpreted through soft, slightly undone fabrics and deconstructed tailoring.
Archival animal prints were brought back in new silhouettes, while colour blocking gave the collection a distinctly modern energy. The result was a wardrobe designed around movement rather than rigid construction.
It also felt like a natural continuation of Diane von Furstenberg's legacy. As Zankov put it, what he learned from Diane was how to work with the body, how clothes move and how they communicate.
For a house so closely associated with the idea of the woman who dresses for herself, the new chapter feels remarkably connected to its origins.
Images courtesy of Diane von Furstenberg
Diotima
Rachel Scott's Diotima collection began with the Caribbean Sea and its complicated history of beauty, passage and loss. Inspired partly by a trip to Grenada, Scott translated those ideas into fabric and movement rather than literal references.
Silk twill became wave-like layers, organza created sculptural shapes and reconstructed chino twill recalled sargassum. Deep blues, muted greens, sand and stormy browns reflected the changing colours of the sea.
Tailoring also became more important, bringing sharp shoulders and defined waists into the world of crochet and intricate craft.
Diotima is one to watch. Scott is expanding the brand without losing the craftsmanship and cultural identity that made it distinctive.
Images courtesy of Diotima
What connects these collections is not one single aesthetic, but a shared relationship with the past. Proenza Schouler brought back the PS1. Khaite revisited familiar lingerie and leather codes. Magda Butrym embraced old-fashioned glamour. Diane von Furstenberg returned to the body and movement at the heart of its history. Diotima transformed history and craft into something contemporary.
Maybe that is why New York feels relevant again.
Fashion is looking backwards, and New York has a lot to remember.
Proenza Schouler
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