Eckhaus Latta can justifiably be termed the founding father of New York’s new era: many of the subversive labels that have cropped up on the calendar over recent seasons first found their feet with Mike [Eckhaus] and Zoe [Latta]. Out of all of the emergent talent hailing from the city, Eckhaus Latta is the first to establish commercially viable international success without losing its authentic sensibility – and has proven that diversity is more than just a fleeting trend on the runways.
“We design based on how we're feeling as individuals,” the duo explain, “but with that said, we love to see our clothing on a range of people including different ages, sizes, races and gender preferences. We prefer when our customer chooses to use our clothing to add to their own identity, not let our clothing define them.” Their willingness to “celebrate non-mainstream archetypes” has previously manifest itself in casting people from Wolfgang Tillmans to Grace Dunham to model their clothes – clothes which might make a statement, but are also simply a joy to wear.
Area NYC
Under the name Area NYC, designers Piotrek Panszczyk and Beckett Fogg are reinventing early-Noughties glamour for the modern age, taking pop culture icons such as Carrie Bradshaw and Christina Aguilera and translating their appeal into remarkably contemporary shimmering lamé dresses and distressed denim jackets. Having started out simply making embossed T-shirts, over recent years the two explain that “we have a developed into a brand that is interested in exploring divides, between high street and high fashion; European and American; feminine and masculine... for us it's not one or the other, we are interested in exploring these concepts as dualities and not as opposites: an inclusive, optimistic attitude.”
Essentially, they’re serving up Romy-and-Michele-meets-Studio 54 realness, filtered through a modern lens and with a gloriously technical approach to fabrication. Quite frankly, what more could a woman want from New York Fashion Week?
Vaquera
“We make fashion fan fiction,” says Vaquera, the collective of New York-based designers who has, over recent seasons, sent everything from wearable Tiffany-inspired jewellery pouches to subversions of Abercrombie & Fitch down their runway. A pivotal part of the new era of young American design, where collaboration and liberal idealism seem as important as the clothes themselves, they explain that “community is a huge part of Vaquera. We wouldn't be at the point that we are now without people’s support, and doing things as a team is also extremely important to us.”
While Patric DiCaprio originally started the brand merely as a passion project, it has since evolved into a disruptive force on the fashion week calendar. “We want to infiltrate the fashion industry, become an influential brand, and make impactful clothing,” they say. “This season, two issues that we'll be touching on are authenticity and commerciality” – but in what avant-garde form remains to be seen.
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