This week, I launched the Back Row community so we can all chat with each other (yay). Pop on over and join the discussions. We have a very interesting suggestion for what the 2027 Costume Institute exhibition and Met Gala theme should be that could be totally brilliant if well executed. Leave your ideas in the thread and if you want to talk about the runway collections, I started a thread on those, too.
Also, tap the link to the community on your mobile phone if you want to get Back Row as a mobile app!
Loose Threads
Two Back Row favorites unite: Banana Republic collaborated with La Ligne and the collection is great. Check out this slinky deep brown shirt dress, this cotton crewneck sweater, and this poplin tunic which already seems to be selling out.
Anna Wintour reminds us how carefree and unbothered she is following the stunning cancellation of the John Galliano Met retrospective. Here she is joyously traversing a parking lot at the US Open with Colman Domingo and Huma Abedin.
Princess Diana's revenge dress is going up for auction on December 9. So if you want a particularly loaded collectible clothing item and have around $300,000 lying around, mark your cal!
Partner message: Warby Parker is affordable enough that you can have a glasses wardrobe. I've been rotating between the Whalen and Nancy, and have my eye (ha ha!) on the Monica. Their oblong sunglasses — the Millie and Monica — are great, too.
Opening Ceremony co-founder Humberto Leon is the new designer for St. John. He's friends with Solange Knowles and, when he told her about the gig, she said, "You know who the ultimate St. John woman is? Miss Tina. We grew up shopping with her at St. John." Hence Tina Knowles is the brand's new face, alongside Leon's mom Wendy and his twin daughters.
St. John.
Fashion Neurosis host Bella Freud asked Saint Laurent designer Anthony Vaccarello how he deals with being at events like the Met Gala. “I don’t do all those things a lot,” he said. “I think it’s important to do it once in a while but I’m more happy with my friends and my family being hidden at home than dealing with all that — celebrities, things.”
Here's a good midcentury house.
Ahead, today’s big story…
New York Fashion Week’s Death Spiral
New York Fashion Week officially begins today. The once-mighty trade show that allowed America’s finest fashion brands to parade their clothes for editors and buyers working diligently three months ahead of the sale date has become a morass of influencers and brand activations and technology. (To be fair, this has happened to lots of live events, from the US Open to Art Basel to Coachella.) Among the many NYFW press releases flooding my inbox is one about how you can watch the Coach, ShowPony, and Kim Shui shows thanks to Twitch creators “set to walk the runway, broadcast their NYFW experience live, and take part in creator events throughout the week.” While from a marketing and relevancy perspective, this is probably exactly what brands need to do, they may be catwalking into the void.
The week has persisted despite calls to reform it that are as earnest as they are regular. After all, don’t we have enough stuff? Do expensive shows offer any designers except Jonathan Anderson and Matthieu Blazy good ROI? Isn’t everyone tired of pandering to the feed, especially since brands are turning to ragebait in the form of, for example, casting Clavicular? This season, Cosmopolitan even implored Mayor Zohran Mamdani to "fix New York Fashion Week." "Well, if anyone has the ability, charisma, and social cachet to do it, it feels like it’s Mayor Mamdani," wrote Aiyana Ishmael.
This season, fashion week may make less sense than ever given the following four trends, which would seem to point to the fast-approaching near-total ruin of the runway ready-to-wear business model:
Subscribe to Back Row to read the rest.
Become a paying subscriber of Back Row to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content.
Upgrade