Inside American Fashion’s Strained Pursuit of Glamour at New York Fashion Week
“In times of war, fashion designers show floral prints,” Miguel Adrover quips sardonically in The Designer is Dead, a new documentary from Gonzalo Hergueta which screened on the first night of New York Fashion Week. With that sentence, Adrover, a prominent designer from the turn of the millennium whose cult following has only increased since his withdrawal from the industry over a decade ago, elucidated much of what American designers would present on the runways throughout the course of the week: At a time of social and political unrest in the United States, American fashion has opted for gloss and glamour, with varying degrees of success. (edited) The overarching theme of recent New York Fashion Weeks had been one of pragmatism dominated by a singular, and very monotonous, idea of taste: Outerwear and plain dresses and simple separates fashioned in cozy materials and neutral tones—camel coats, navy crewnecks, and lots of gray. It would be too simple to call this a consequence of the “quiet luxury” craze of 2024. Rather, it was the trickling down …
