With New York Fashion Week at a close, we’re looking back on the Fall/Winter 2023 collections presented by Markarian, Willy Chavarria, Naeem Khan, and others.
Courtesy of Willy Chavarria.
Introduced within the beautiful Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum was Willy Chavarria’s collection “KANGAROO,” described by the house as “a story of protection in a cruel and harsh world.” The brand’s first foray into evening attire, the designs were sharp in their details and encompassing in their shapes and proportions, embodying protective qualities, but also suggesting ideas of vulnerability through touches like sensuous sheers, soft ties at the neck, and fabric flowers attached to lapels. Blurring the lines of gendered dress (is it menswear touching on the feminine or womenswear with a masculine point of view?), we saw styles recalling various periods of historic fashion, including Regency-reminiscent empire waists, sailor pants with wide hems, ceremonious ascots, and leg-of-mutton sleeves alluding to the Victorian era. The collection was imagined entirely in black and white and took a minimalistic approach to styling that saw glossy black dress shoes accompanying each look and the occasional pair of scrunched leather opera gloves.
Courtesy of Naeem Khan.
Naeem Khan’s 20th-anniversary collection was one of show-stopping silhouettes and glamor, celebrating the designer’s artful use of embroidery and textiles and the family history that inspires him. Garments suitable for cocktail and black-tie occasions—including miniature dresses, jumpsuits, pants with tops, fitted shapes, dresses with capes, and ballgowns—were abundant with metallic beading, embroidery, mesh with crystals, feathers, and bright colors. There were metallic boleros over matching bras, sheer gowns covered in flower appliques or glittering tassels, full shapes with giant bows, bold beaded patterns, shimmery snow leopard prints, and more. Some of our favorite pieces included a gown that encompassed the body from shoulder to toe in purple ostrich feathers, an ornately-printed gown with pockets and a statement neck frill, and a velvet skirt and metallic bodice paired with an off-the-shoulder cape that trailed behind.
Courtesy of SIMKHAI.
A rebranding of the designer Jonathan Simkhai’s eponymous brought fall 2023 debuts from the newly-deemed SIMKHAI. The collection felt grounded and connected in a moment that is greatly lacking those qualities. The designs were interesting yet accessible, centering an inside-out exploration of jackets—parkas, blazers, trenches, and more—organic lace motifs (informed by the designer’s grandfather, who ran a lace mill in Tehran), and expert-level craftsmanship that put a focus on the garments’s details. The jacket-focused silhouettes brought us looks like matching sets in lacquered denim, coats combining materials like leather and herringbone, and a puffer-turned dress style that featured oversized knit sleeves and a skirt with a partially-detached quilted train. The collection also included a series of elevated dresses, like a style with gold lace and beading, a halter neck slip printed with the night sky, and a twisted draped style that featured tiny seams of buttons.
Courtesy of Coach.
Introduced at the Park Avenue Armory, Coach’s fall 2023 collection depicted a narrative on the importance of individuality, community, and safe spaces, inspired by the melting pot that is New York City. The house’s codes and heritage reimagined for the present moment were the basis for the designs, infusing a youthful quality into quintessential styles like trenches, floor-length dresses, and matching sets with button-up jackets. We saw knit dresses with playful graphics (like a striped sweater dress with a dinosaur on the front), long leather skirts with matching tops, aviator styles, and diaphanous sheer dresses with ruffles—all styled with opposing chunky combat boots and a selection of purses and handbags in fun colors. The house also introduced a new sustainability concept that included several facets like employing upcycled leather scraps for the season’s ready-to-wear silhouettes, crafting shoes from recycled pre-loved handbags, utilizing natural dyes made from botanicals, and creating jew jewelry from repurposed vintage pieces.
Courtesy of Laquan Smith.
LaQuan Smith chose the nostalgia of retro evening tailoring as the point of reference for fall/winter 2023, taking on a provocateur attitude to remix classic elegance. Tuxedo origins could be found throughout the collection, seen in cropped jackets paired with jumpsuits, blazers worn over sheer lace gowns, and in derivative pieces that employed details from suits and tuxedos in other forms and purposes—like a trousers-and-top set with a cummerbund, where the silk lapel of an evening jacket made up a plunging seam of fabric on an otherwise sheer top, or in a sky blue set where the top half of a blazer was fashioned into a skirt with asymmetric details. Accompanying these suiting looks was an array of daring silhouettes that featured sensuous sections of bare skin, high-cut hips revealed above the hem of pants, and other bombshell details and shapes.
Courtesy of Markarian.
For Markarian’s latest collection, its founder and designer Alexandra O’Neill channeled the stories of her grandparents, who grew up together in Astoria, Queens. The couple spent their nights dancing in clubs, her grandmother wearing dresses that her grandfather had made himself. These stories imbued in the collection feelings of nostalgia, a little romance, and the special nature that comes with things made with love and care. The designs—dresses, dress coats, and two looks with pants—posed a party-ready attitude, perfect for a night on the town, but one with an old-world feel that upheld a certain grace and poise. Imagined in jewel tones, florals, crystals, and sparkling sequins, we saw off-the-shoulder a-lines with swinging skirts, column gowns and bias cuts, two-piece sets with tastefully-revealed midriff, asymmetric shapes with draped details and trailing sleeves, and more. Two looks still on our minds include a long-sleeved black velvet gown with a diagonal detailed skirt in white and a dress with a 1950s feel, featuring a ruffled off-the-shoulder neckline and a muted floral print in blue and red.
