In New York, Everything Revolves Around Bottoms
The dust has settled, NYFW's a wrap. And upon revisiting some of the event's standout offerings, key motifs emerged as harbingers of what the city's designers want you to wear next.
There were polkadots, pinstripes, and plenty of brown, with a particular focus on pants. Slinky or tailored, belted or billowing, dyed or deconstructed: trousers were the center of New York Fashion Week's SS26 universe. "Statement tops no more," they seem to be saying. "From now on, we're doing statement bottoms."
At Luar this translated to fishnets, velvet flares, and bejeweled speedos. Coach sent an army of coffee-colored baggy jeans down the runway. Eckhaus Latta's take featured studs and spray paint. And Todd Snyder was guided herein by the ghost of Giorgio Armani.
All this to say, the impending reign of pants promises an era of legwear that's so vast and varied, you might even say it compares to the according product section's expansive range on SSENSE (wink wink).
Twisted Traditions
In identifying categories within the category, tailored and suit pants, classic, reimagined or re-proportioned, protruded as favorites of New York's brands.
After what's been an ongoing fascination with vintage corporate fashion and power dressing, it's no wonder the Big Apple's tastemakers, too, would want to reinterpret the white collar uniform, its cultural and sartorial building blocks.
Terra Firma Tones
Elsewhere, on the more casual side of things, earthy denim and avant garde cargos claimed the spotlight. Surefire, seasonless shades of cocoa, khaki and chestnut have encroached on Pantone's pinboard as bottoms prepare to top the fashion food chain.
Trimmed, Textured, & Tapestried
Prints, patterns, and other ornate decorations covered the surfaces of some of the best pants on display here, some cropped or distressed, others barely there at all. But a pant is a pant regardless, come it in the form of a tooth-floss-thong, pleated slacks in gabardine wool, or stacked cotton corduroys.
Top recession or not, bottoms were due some respect. And New York showed it.
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