On Sept. 10, New York Fashion Week (NYFW) heralded its opening at the High Line with the spring/summer ready-to-wear 2027 debut collection of Henry Zankov for Diane von Furstenberg (DVF).
As a newly appointed Artistic Director of DVF, Zankov reimagined the house’s iconic wrap dress with an emphasis on modern tailoring and a hint of chroma-paletted 1970s glamour. As opposed to previous designs on singular, one-piece dresses, Zankov’s collection embodies modern femininity and sensuality beyond the closets of a traditional DVF wardrobe.
While Zankov takes up the baton for the quintessential legacy of “wrapping,” he embarks on the adventure of T-shirts, trench coats and drapes to lithely embrace the figure. With the “confetti” motif, high-octane fabric and DVF archival 1976 signature print, NYFW travels back to the 1970s disco-wave era.
American fashion designer Thom Browne is also notable for his brand’s modern tailoring. This year’s collection held a sui generis theme of metamorphosis with an entomological motif, inspired by the 1998 Pixar animation “A Bug’s Life.” While the bug-inspired theme is rather whimsical, it doesn’t eclipse the meticulous precision tailoring of Browne.
As a renowned pioneer and master of modern couture, Browne proved his title once again by integrating the house’s American prep aesthetic and masculine fashion (chesterfield coats, checkered utilitarian outers and a straw boater hat with a sheer panel of vibrant mesh) with avant-garde theatricality.
Similar to DVF’s dynamic pigment selection, Thom Browne’s color theme of the year is an explosion of colors arising from a stark black contrast. With the iconic red, white and blue stripe styled with chrome blue lip stain, cool-toned mauvy blush and mosaic-style prints to mimic an iridescent beetle exoskeleton, the alienesque entomology theme came to life.