Despite the frigid conditions and harsh arctic winds sending wind chills to twenty below, fashion week goes on. It's a good thing turtlenecks are back (and cross body stoles)! What else is trending at fashion week this season? Hat hair, stompy boots, and—at least at fashion label Opening Ceremony—throwback fashion references to the 1990s. Their collection featured unseen Spike Jonze photographs from that time period as well as "slouch trousers, skater belts, excellent layering and a Kodak-moment colour palette."
Meanwhile, Tommy Hilfiger constructed a football field for his catwalk and put leather football jersey dresses on his models, which was sure to please New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who was in the audience. Diane von Furstenberg (her company is across the street from us so we feel a special connection) titled her collection "Seduction" and had "elements that ranged from the boardroom to the bedroom in a veritable blizzard of offerings." Designer Thom Browne staged a funeral show featuring a white-clad corpse laid out on a gurney and models in all black. Iconic fashion house Oscar de la Renta, which is dealing with the loss of their founder last year, have their first show under successor and new Creative Director Peter Copping.
In the creative world of fashion, diversity and new talent is always a good thing, which is why The New York Times was right to discuss fashion's racial disparity. And also good to see Asian-born talent on the catwalk as well as Navajo designer Jolonzo Guy Goldtooth. In another win for diversity, Italian label FTL MODA enlisted a group of disabled models including those in wheelchairs as well as amputees for their catwalk, following Jamie Brewer's historic walk during the Carrie Hammer "Role Models Not Runway Models" show as the first woman with Down syndrome to walk at New York Fashion Week. And then there was Yeezus.