Kevan Hall | FashionStock

Kevan Hall | FashionStock

CALIFORNIA FOR NYFW

Heading East, California Designers Shine During NYFW

It was a return to a more traditional fashion calendar as designers headed to the East Coast to showcase their Spring 2022 collections during New York Fashion Week. Following a year that was defined by virtual fashion presentations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this fashion season afforded a sense of normalcy blended with a new normal. During its Sept. 7–12 run, NYFW welcomed a return to on-site fashion productions but also continued the opportunity for designers to unveil their collections through video.

Designers based in California enjoyed a strong presence with fashion houses including Kevan Hall, Silent Panda, Tadashi Shoji and Wolk Morais presenting their new designs. For many, the celebratory nature of emerging from the cocoon of home extended from their designs into this NYFW edition.

Referencing the signature style of Christian Berard’s painting—and the artist’s contemporaries, Alberto Giacometti and Jean Michel-Frank—Hall created a collection named “Brushstrokes,” which incorporates trompe l’oeil influences. The designer noted that this return was made sweeter by the fresh approach led by NYFW on Fifth.

“New York Fashion Week on Fifth Avenue is a brand-new venue that is going to be the spot where designer collections are going to be shown. Right there on Fifth Avenue, with floor-to-ceiling windows where passersby can look and see the collection happening in real time, I feel like it was a phenomenal space to show in,” Hall said. “It was great. People were excited to be back at Fashion Week and excited to see the collections.”

Shoji’s collection, which was presented via a short fashion film, reflected inspiration drawn from the jubilant Roaring Twenties period that followed the1918 influenza pandemic. The designer was hopeful that a similar pattern of joyfulness and merriment was beginning now.

“[For this collection,] I researched the 1920s fabrications, all the silhouettes,” Shoji explained. “This is next Spring, so we are thinking about how we hope—I hope—the feeling of the Roaring Twenties is coming next year. This hundred-year cycle from the Roaring Twenties is coming back around.”

The Spring 2022 showing of NYFW designers relied on an air of hope, which the fashion industry has been feeling over the last few months as clients return to life lived outside the home, necessitating refreshed styles that perfectly reflect society’s reemergence. With these presentations of their latest works, California designers also unveiled their visions for the future. Full NYFW coverage can be found at nyfw.com.