NYC Designers Answer Our Burning Fashion Week Questions
It’s once again time for New York Fashion Week, where designers take over downtown Manhattan to show their collections off for the upcoming season. Each season editors, buyers, and Instagrammers flock to Spring Studios—since the event has outgrown Bryant Park and Lincoln Center—to preview what trends fashion lovers can expect to see in storefront windows and on the streets in the coming months.
In the last few years in large part to a little app called Instagram, fashion week has changed drastically and many questions have been raised about its value, timeline, and future. Some may follow the lead of Alexander Wang, who has decided to show his collections in June and December rather than March and September to better suit the market and the digital shift in the industry. Others might decide to show their collections in other cities for a change of pace, like Proenza Schouler, which made a brief exodus to Paris before returning to NYFW this September. And a few have even flirted with the tricky to execute and better in theory see-now-buy-now practice where styles are available to shop immediately following a runway show.
But for now at least, fashion week is still here and NYC-based labels are preparing to debut their spring/summer ‘19 collections for the world to see. As fashion week kicks off, we couldn’t help but wonder what is going through the minds of designers in anticipation of their presentations. So rather than speculate, we asked a select few—about their design processes, how they unwind after NYFW and the one thing they wish they’d known before they started their brands.
Wei Lin and Mijia Zhang of PH5
Describe your design process in three words.
Art meets science.
What do you wish you'd known before you started your brand?
That we would be spending more time traveling than at home.
How do you unwind after your NYFW presentation?
Scuba diving in Raja Ampat, Indonesia.
What’s your NYFW hype song?
"Fox on the run" by Sweet.
Hillary Taymour of Collina Strada
Describe your design process in three words.
Stare, sketch, erase.
What do you wish you'd known before you started your brand?
I wish I knew that social media was soon going to change the whole game.
How do you unwind after your NYFW presentation?
I stay in bed for a long weekend and binge-watch TV while responding to emails and interviews. Then I try to take a vacation after sales.
What’s your NFYW hype song?
Crystal Sound Baths
Sally LaPointe
Describe your design process in three words.
Organized, collective, personal.
What do you wish you'd known before you started your brand?
Someone once told me "You do realize it takes 10 years to build a successful fashion business right?" I didn't believe them then, but now coming up on nine years in this business, I get it!
How do you unwind after your NYFW presentation?
I remove myself! I have a flight to the Bahamas at 6 am the next morning with my husband and my dog.
What’s your NFYW hype song?
Oh my gosh, Beyoncé and Rihanna all day long. I think my team wants to kill me after that week of playing their songs non-stop.
Christian Cowan
Describe your design process in three words.
Sketch, throw them all away, then sketch again
What do you wish you'd known before you started your brand?
I wish fashion university had better prepared me for the financial or logistical stresses that come with being a new design house.
How do you unwind after your NYFW presentation?
I sleep for about 14 hours, then I play with my puppy, Mango.
What’s your NFYW hype song?
George Michael—“Freedom ’90!”
