New York Fashion Week Spring 2023 NYFW SS23

New York Fashion Week Spring 2023 starts off with a reflection on the styles and crafts that dominated the pandemic- crochet and knitting, quilting, smocking, and all those awful Target cottage-core dresses which can only serve as  The Handmaid’s Tale‘s preparatory wardrobe. I do believe we should move away from fast fashion and toward handmade, bespoke, slow fashion, made-to-order, DIY; and support those who actually own the IP “brands” steal from.

Runway Trends for New York Fashion Week Spring 2023

There are a lot of criss-cross wrap tops weaving in and out of jackets, deconstructed open seam sleeves, hip cut outs, lace-up details, and loads of sheer pants. Slimline puffers, layering, chiffon and open-weave knits, contrasting textures. Although this was my least favorite season for New York Fashion Week since 2008, I have hope we’ll shift away from boring mall clothes and fast fashion that dominate the runways and stores to closet curation, something original, new, and inspired.

Sea wants to embrace craftsmanship for NYFW and utilizes crochet, quilting, broderie anglais, and smocking in its Spring 2023collection, which is honestly not as elevated as it could have been or would be if edited down (no one should look like a granny quilt personified), but let’s give ‘em credit for all the hard work that went into it. The color palette is composed of eggshell, navy and Yale blue floral prints which appear to be appliqué with embroidered borders, grey and yellow native tribal print, caramel and Yale blue floral on cream fabric, bold multicolored crochet in varying geometric shapes, burnt golden rod drawstring pants, indigo denim, multicolor multi-pattern granny quilt realness, red mint and blue patchwork quilting… The fabric selection included rickrack and scalloped trims, with everything seemingly being of plain-weave fabrics in natural fibers- I’d assume cottons, linens, cotton or wool yarns, seersucker, eyelet, broderie anglais, denim, chambray, calico…

Monse’s use of sheer crepe and tulle, lace-up pant legs, and deconstructed sleeves are interesting design details. Look at those seam lines- impeccable! The color palette includes black, bubblegum pink, camouflage, literal jaguar leopard print, banana and radish graphic knit sweaters, floral prints in white and black with either caramel or jade green, white, just a touch of olive on a shirred waistband and a lace-up dress, blue (denim), red and blue gingham, caramel and white stripes, khaki, creamsicle, tangerine, navy (including a pinstripe), teal, and army green. The fabric selection appears to be cotton twill and drill, horsehair, plain weave cotton fabrics, rayon, square stitch and rib knits, sheer silk chiffon in black, nylon, denim, wool suiting, pale blue cotton shirting, gabardine or poplin… The styling is simple: bucket hats and geometric earrings, rectangular branded nylon bags with oversized webbing straps and buckles, open-toe sandals being used on both sexes.