THINGS WE'VE LEARNED SO FAR

from New York Fashion Week Part II

At the time of writing, it is Tuesday evening and once again many fashion and life lessons have crossed our path.

 Different colored shoes are in

This summer, Cécile Narinx appeared in the NRC with pumps under her signature pencil skirt. Not so strange in itself, except that one was black and the other was red. Or something like that. In New York, the accidental express shoe swap is applied enough that I am now certain that there was also intent involved with Cécile.

 Obsessed is the word

When I was in New York this summer, everyone reacted to a solid story with the words ‘historical’ or, even worse, ‘epic’. No dude, landing on the moon is historical and ‘epic’ shouldn't be said anymore anyway. This fashion week, ‘obsessed’ is the theme. Pat McGrath is ‘#obsessed’ with the look of DieselGold and hmb79 is #obsessed with the dresses of Naeem Khan and Frenchie221 is #obsessed with her two tomcats staring out the window.

 Fill yourself up

Among the models, a clean trend is noticeable (so few tattoos and piercings), while this trend continues to thunder through among the hair and makeup artists. I have yet to encounter the first makeup artist or hairstylist without tattoos. The credo seems to be much and funny because we see sleeves, hands, necks, and legs that are so colored in that David Beckham looks sparse in comparison. Is there another trend noticeable within this tattoo spectacle? Certainly. After the reindeer antlers (shakira, remember?) and the handwritten texts, it's now the turn of the funny little creatures. Comic characters, naked little pee-boy-like scenes, alarm clock numbers, or garter bows.

 Coconut water is the word

Coconut water is good for the skin and against hangovers. And that it comes in handy during a week where everything revolves around appearance and something alcoholic can regularly be in the glass seems clear to me.

 Lincoln Center is ‘so over’

Once, back in the days, the shows were held in tents set up in Bryant Park. In recent years, Lincoln Center has been the epicenter of New York Fashion Week. Easy to have everything together, you would think, but it is quite an uninspiring, trade fair-like situation there. We are therefore not sad that DvF chose the Spring Studios in Tribecca, Victoria Beckham transformed a beautiful building in the Financial District into a show venue, and Vera Wang set up the Dia Center on 22nd street as a pebble-covered catwalk. With some traditions, it is not a bad thing if they are broken. Really not.