I’ve already posted the first set of five brands and designers that I’m looking forward to at SS2024 New York Fashion Week, you can see my picks here. I also mentioned how all the reporting around this edition of NYFW seems to talk about a sort of creative crisis on the schedule, and hyperfixate on Peter Do’s debut at Helmut Lang.
That show has now come and gone and I’ve seen different opinions – some of the media that were hyping up the show are now doubling down on their predictions and saying how amazing it was, others have remained quiet. Public opinion seems highly divided, and a lot of people are saying that the brand will never be the same without Lang himself, and perhaps it should just be left to die. There were also a lot of mentions about the current quality of the clothing, with many saying this needs to be improved for the brand to survive.
I can’t say I was too keen on the show overall, but I do have to give praise to Peter Do for not just taking his signature aesthetic and copying that over to Helmut Lang like some designers do. Maybe I will grow to appreciate the collection more, as I’ve only had a quick look so far.
Enough about all that, here are the final five brands that I’m excited to see at New York Fashion Week. The featured image shows (l-r) Tanner Fletcher AW2023, Elena Velez AW2023, Melitta Baumeister AW2023, Puppets and Puppets AW2023, and Luar AW2023. All runway and lookbook images are from Vogue Runway.
12.09.2023 17:00 Tanner Fletcher
Tanner Fletcher was launched by Tanner Richie and Fletcher Kasell as a genderless brand to encourage purchasing clothes based on whether or not the buyer likes them, regardless of label, rather than being bound to them being menswear or womenswear.[1] The pair met in college and founded the label in 2020. Richie’s background is in interior design, while Kasell’s is in fashion merchandising and buying.[2]
12.09.2023 20:00 Elena Velez
13.09.2023 11:00 Melitta Baumeister
Melitta Baumeister, a German designer based in New York, studied at Pforzhein University in Germany where she met Shelley Fox, the director of the MFA program at Parson’s, where she later studied and achieved an MFA.[5] Her debut collection was Spring Summer 2015 which was immediately picked up by Dover Street Market.[6]
12.09.2023 13:00 Puppets and Puppets
Puppets and Puppets was founded in 2018 by Carly Mark and Ayla Argentina, with Mark being creative director and publicist and Argentina doing most of the sewing,[7] although the pair have since parted ways. In 2022, the brand won the Fashion Trust U.S. Google Creativity Award. The cookie bag is one of the brand’s most famous pieces, and later handbag designs included other everyday items such as roses, telephones and bananas.[8]
13.09.2023 20:00 Luar
Luar was launched in 2011 by Raul Lopez, who had founded cult label Hood By Air back in 2006 with Shayne Oliver. Lopez’s Ana bag design won him the CFDA’s Accessory Designer of the Year award in 2022 – the bag first appeared on the runway in September 2021 and online pre-orders afterwards sold out within 15 minutes.[9]
