new york fashion week : fall 2016

New York Fashion Week has begun, kicking off Fashion Month– our favorite time of year! We have been tantalized by the Spring 2017 collections rolling out this week. Read on to find out our favorites, and you’ll be on trend when Spring finally comes!

Tanya Taylor’s presentation at NYFW.

We love NYFW’s Ready-to-Wear shows for presenting a slightly more attainable version of our favorite designers’ work. We were majorly inspired by designer Tanya Taylor’s presentation. Taylor is known for her exuberant prints and playful, feminine silhouettes. She worked with countless prints of her own design– floral, striped, graphic, geometric… the list goes on. Despite many competing elements, Taylor’s collection was completely cohesive. She described her Spring 2017 muse as “ruffled up and not afraid of a tassel” and we couldn’t agree more. We may not be able to wait until Spring to deck ourselves out in tassels, bows and layered prints.

RED Valentino by Pierpaolo Piccioli.

RED Valentino (Valentino’s hipper, more casual imprint), showcased a slightly retro, California-inspired collection at NYFW. Lots of beachy knitwear, graphic prints, and vintage shapes made this an incredibly evocative collection. Appliqued sunset and wave motifs were a common thread throughout the collection, which (intentionally or otherwise) reminded us of Salvation Mountain— the painted hill that has become a folk-art monument in California. Fashion Week has just begun, but RED Valentino is our favorite show thus far.

Rounding out the retro nostalgia is M for Missoni, Missoni’s “more affordable” division. The Missoni house is known for beautiful knits in all manner of striped, geometric and chevron patterns. It is a fashion line that began in the 1950’s, so we tend to trust their interpretation of the retro revival. The first thing we noticed about this week’s show were the accessories. Every model wore wooden “flatforms”, a colorful and most-likely uncomfortable nod to the 70’s. Purses were worn two at a time, for a hippie/festival-goer vibe. The famous Missoni prints were given a metallic treatment and executed in sheer and opaque knitwear– the bellbottoms below were our favorite! A diaphanous printed jumpsuit and asymmetrical bias-cut skirt provided some visual variety in this very dress-heavy collection.

M for Missoni.

Chicago certainly has several more weeks of summer weather ahead of us. We’re not waiting until 2017 to rock some outfits inspired by these NYFW shows, and you shouldn’t either!