By Seth Khouri
Collina strada
If there’s one thing Hillary Taymour of Collina Strada believes in, it’s the power of caricature. Last season, this manifested through an emphasis on one’s shadow self—an alter ego sharpened into focus. In others (think SS24), it arrived via crooked, doll-like smiles and knowingly exaggerated tropes. It feels fitting, then, that this season proves no exception. For AW26, Taymour unveiled “The World Is a Vampire,” a title that materialised in gothic, Dracula-esque ruffs and billowing Victorian sleeves. She never veered too far into the witching hour, however. Sheer floral dresses and slinky, seductive slips grounded the theatrics in the label’s established codes. Layering and proportion were central: dresses perched atop shirting, blouses half-hazardly tucked into drawstring trousers, silhouettes built through deliberate imbalance. Though muted in palette, the collection leaned heavily into pattern—purple checks styled against pink florals, none of it collapsing into chaos. Strada’s bug-eyed sunglasses returned as expected, punctuating nearly all thirty-two looks. Once again, Taymour proves just how attuned she is to New York’s stylistic hive-mind, refracting it back through her own warped, wonderful lens.
Area
As the week progressed, an unstoppable wave of beige overtook what was once fashion’s most flirtatious city. Yet for Nicholas Aburn, newly appointed creative director of Area, conformity was never on the agenda this New York Fashion Week. Instead, Aburn delivered a collection tinged with Parisian sensibility while recalling a New York of seasons past—reminding his audience how thrilling it is to simply dance. While untitled this season, the offering could only be described as glamour. “I wanted to make it about the good feeling of when you feel confident about how you’re dressed. I use the word glamour a lot—I think it’s about taking agency and not feeling bad about it,” Aburn shared ahead of his second NYFW showing. On the runway, an emulsion of sequins, tassels, crystal, ruffles, and tulle moved in a kaleidoscope of colour. Oversized coats brushed past party dresses in easy harmony, spectacle balanced with wearability. In just two seasons, Aburn has not only preserved the Area touch—he’s amplified it, reminding New York that fashion, at its best, still shimmers.
Tory Burch
For some, fashion week becomes an exercise in proving fluency in the cultural zeitgeist—a parade of micro and macro trends staking their claim both on and off the runway. For Tory Burch, no such performance is required. Rather than chasing what’s hot, Burch asks what endures. This season, the answer arrived in corduroy trousers—her father’s, to be exact—an intimate reference anchoring the collection in memory and permanence. The show began intentionally restrained before easing the audience into the core of Burch’s ethos. Here was a masterclass in the modern wardrobe: wearable and approachable, yet polished and resolute. A chorus of overcoats, pencil skirts, tailored trousers, and dresses emerged, some jolted to life in orange, green apple, and candy red. And it wouldn’t be a Tory Burch affair without accessories—a symphony of belts, bags, sunglasses, and shoes punctuating the forty-two-look lineup. In a landscape obsessed with acceleration, Burch continues to design for the everyday, standing firm in the belief that longevity will always outlast noise.
Contessa Mills
“I was drawn to the Queen of Cups because it reflects how I design—by trusting instinct and emotion as much as technique,” shared Contessa Mills while discussing her official NYFW debut. In tarot, the Queen of Cups symbolises emotional intelligence as power—a quiet, intuitive strength. Water, the card’s elemental force, became the undercurrent of the collection, guiding Mills toward what felt like her most assured offering to date. It was a body of work steeped in movement, fluidity, and an unforced sense of freedom. Voluminous taffeta swelled against sharply tailored tops and liquid sequined dresses, demonstrating Mills’ growing command over tension and release. The dialogue between structure and softness felt intentional, as though each look oscillated between restraint and surrender. Though storm-toned in palette—inky blues, sea-greens, and washes of grey—there was an undeniable serenity that settled over the runway. The effect was trance-like, evocative of a siren’s call: powerful yet composed, emotive yet controlled. With this debut, Mills offers her clearest articulation yet of who she is as a designer. Guided by instinct but sharpened by craft, she appears less concerned with chasing currents than with understanding how to move within them—allowing emotion, rather than excess, to chart the course forward.
