New York Designers Take a Minimalist Approach to American Glamour

Earlier in the week, Hillary Taymour of Collina Strada told everyone to “touch grass.” Backstage at the Sandy Liang show, there was a similar offline sentiment coming from the designer, who recently designed a FlipSuit phone case and a set of hairpins with Android. Guests at the show found the hair accessories waiting on their seats, which were arranged around a runway covered in a fluffy pink rug.

When I asked Liang what she loved about working on a flip phone project, she said, “I love that it is so small and compact and fits everywhere. It’s the whole world in your hands.” Liang’s world of bows and ballet flats is steeped in nostalgia and chasing the feeling of a youth you’ll never have again. She's so good at it that it’s easy to imagine she actually lives there, but she's stuck in 2024 like the rest of us. “I miss that world where your phone was just where you had calls. It wasn’t everything.”

Flip phones represent a simpler time sans social media and doom scrolling and having everyone you’ve ever wanted in the palm of your hands. Liang’s collection also felt notably pared back, replacing Y2K exuberance with ’90s minimalism. Models wore simple jersey dresses, plaid two-piece sets, long button-down tunics worn with matching pleated bandanas. There weren’t as many ribbons as there had been in the past. It very much felt like a collection that you would save as the background of your flip phone instead of posting on your Instagram story.

Liang told me that her girl is a New Yorker for whom nothing is “too precious”—she wears what she wants on the subway. Ib Kamara’s Off-White also presented the idea of a real New Yorker. The show normally takes in Paris but came to the city this week. Kamara titled it 'Duty Free' and mentioned in the show notes that he was inspired by a trip he took to Ghana. “I have vivid memories of what America, and New York in particular, represented in the collective imagination of Africans: a dreamland of utopias made real, a place of opportunities,” he wrote. “The lotteries in which the main prize would be a possibility to enter the States were major events for us.”

There’s a fierce utilitarian feel to the collection, with strategically placed zippers on tops and pants meant to allow for the multiple purposeness of being a New Yorker who could be doing anything on any given day. The women’s wear was also particularly hot, with fabric that sculpted and fell off the body. If Sandy Liang’s girl isn’t too precious, than Kamara’s New Yorker is downright fearless.

At Bach Mai, Mai wasn’t afraid to be vulnerable in his show notes either, writing about the darkness that engulfed him after the death of his father. “This darkness extended to all aspects of my life, in particular my creative universe. It was in the depths of this winter that I was reminded of my father’s reaction to my debut collection, “Where is all the color?”

The Spring 2025 collection answered that question with bright reds and oranges and pinks, inspired by the art of James Turrell and the architecture of Luis Barragán. Mai was also inspired by an iconic photo of Charles James's gowns by Cecil Beaton, and used it as a jumping off point to re-envision his own idea of American glamor. What that looks like in a Bach Mai world: pants made of organza and long transparent boat-neck tops with a train.

And as expected, Eckhaus Latta too had their own notions of American glamor and of what a fashion show should be like. This season, guests were instructed to wear Eckhuas Latta for dinner in a Tribeca loft. Those who were wearing the latest collection were asked to do an impromptu runway walk in the space between the tables as audience members stood up from their chairs to cheer. The pieces felt familiar from afar—cardigans, knit tops, denim jackets—but when approached, it was clear that each one was designed with elements to set it apart, which has always been the Eckhaus Latta way.

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