Reviews for Retrofête, Rag & Bone, Vince & More

Year after year, New York Fashion Week showcases the breadth of American fashion. One category that continues to expand: the contemporary market. Here, WWD rounds up a mix of brands and trends charting next phase of the market for fall 2024.

Retrofête

Retrofête’s DNA was built on the “alpha female” image as expressed through Ohad Seroya’s gaze, but interestingly, he turned the mirror on himself this time, examining where that vision stems from.

Looking to ‘80s power women in cinema, the designer cited Sharon Stone in “Basic Instinct” and Melanie Griffith in “Working Girl,” but this collection was a tribute to Seroya’s ultimate working girl, his mother. “She had three jobs and was always in a rush, but she always looked fabulous no matter what,” he said. 

So Seroya shaped things up and shipped out to the grand ballroom at The Plaza where diva tailoring was the message. Broad-shoulder three- or four-piece suits came in heritage fabrics, aside from one with a smoke print as an homage to momma (she was rarely caught without a cigarette). Finger waves, ties, briefcases, ruffle blouses and Mongolian fur coats added to completeness of the look, which resembled career Barbie on her way to the office. Whatever job awaited her there, she must be making big money to dress this fabulous.  

And she goes day-to-night with evening stoles thrown over bubblegum pink minis, gold chainmail dresses and vampy velvet or sequin gowns with lace cutouts and thigh-high slits.

Throughout, one could spy riffs on French bourgeois-meets-biker styling in the leather moto jackets and pencil skirts worn with opaque tights and teetering patent stilettos. If it brought Anthony Vaccarello success at Saint Laurent, perhaps it’ll be a hit for Seroya, too.

Kobi Halperin

This season Kobi Halperin was all about Friday night lights, using his first runway presentation to send a message of unity amid the ongoing conflict in his native Israel. “It’s a very moving moment for me,” he said.

Raised an orthodox Jew, Halperin found the most peace in Shabbat, so its rituals like lighting the candles, setting the dinner table, and getting properly dressed for synagogue were throughout. A live band remixed Lekha Dodi, a traditional hymn sung on Friday nights welcoming in the “Shabbat queen.”

Borrowing from the Hasidic wardrobe, Halperin’s Shabbat queens wore suits in pinstripes and houndstooth wool. Some Jewish sects require men to tuck their pants into white socks resembling shorts, leading him to swap out flared trousers for cooler-looking Bermudas in some places.

Elsewhere, long tallit-like strands were crocheted into miniskirts worn with afghan coats in Mongolian shearling. Outerwear was the strong point, like a short croc-embossed pleather trench and a cozy faux-fur duffle. Velvet dresses and skirts with tablecloth lace appliqués elevated the rich look.

Pulling back from Rabbi-costume territory, Halperin turned to his Austro-Hungarian roots to find a muse in fashion designer Emilie Flöge. Her bohemian style was filtered through a glam-rock lens with kaleidoscopic prints, caftans and capes worn over gold embellished HotPants — an homage to Flöge’s companion, Gustav Klimt as well as to those Shabbat candles. “There’s darkness to it,” Halperin explained, “but a feeling of hope comes through.”

Vince

A trip out west to see the awe-inspiring landscape of the Wyoming Tetons landed on Caroline Belhumeur’s mood board for fall. “The experience is like this profoundly epic landscape,“ she said of the trip. It ushered in a moodier take on Vince with blanket plaids, thick gage sweaters, cocoon-like coats in menswear fabrics and patina-ed leathered pieces.

Wide-open spaces may have been the inspiration, but the collection is very much rooted in urban polish with a touch of sensuality via exposed lingerie moments. Butter-soft leather A-line skirts with shirting in muted colors, loose suiting, still with padded shoulders create a boxy shape that has been seen across collections the past few seasons. Subtle sexy moments came via sheer panels on skirts and tops, and bralettes styled under blazers or cashmere knits, soft on the body. “We’ve really carved ourselves a niche for elevated knits. It’s like a T-shirt and our customer loves it,” she said of the layering staples.

Outerwear was seasonless with leather coats, bomber jackets, gold button peacoats and mannish top coats. She layered it for a play in textures, a conversation Vince does so well.

Derek Lam 10 Crosby

Laila Gohar, an Egyptian artist with food as her medium is the next “real woman” muse for Derk Lam 10 Crosby’s Kate Wallace, the second chapter in the brand’s 10 x 10 concept that introduces a muse anchored in reality each season.

Wallace says fall is a “collection of quirky moments,” channeling Gohar’s real life in Paris as a home base when crafting the collection, styling in her personal pieces next to Wallace’s work.

She again played in decades, using the ’30s and ’40s to set up a range of pieces, a floral jacquard jacket and looser shaped blazers decidedly meant for 2024. She paired pieces with denim, a modern go-to and a big part of the brand’s business, taking the collection though the journey of Gohar’s day: work, evening and play. Chic smoking jackets, mulitistriped knits, pajama pants and muted print dresses hit many points of a closet.

Wallace is firmly locked in, evolving the brand with subtle refined touches, her “quirks” she says, like silk lining in coats, scuba bonding on jackets, or a satin delicious slightly cropped puffer jacket. While not readily seen in images, they are touches that the customer will feel at retail, and really isn’t that the point to sell clothes to real women?

Veronica Beard

There is a bit of a mood this season at Veronica Beard. The “Veronicas,” as they are known, were “super inspired by this sophisticated rebellion, this woman that is just chic and badass and devil-may-care,” Veronica Swanson explained. The duo think in terms of pieces and customer needs, and fall sees them lean into texture, deep suede, tweeds and satins as a way to inject newness into their messaging. It felt like a modern, redone ’70s energy; shot against a car backdrop, the theme was set.

Pencil skirt suits, a tux dress, the exact right leather jacket — “cornerstones” of a wardrobe Veronica Miele said. A tapestry print in subtle sequins was a nice way to add a bit of shine and could be seen day or night.

Denim separates, knitwear and with the addition of handbags, Veronica Beard has their customer covered from top to bottom, work to play. It’s a big and growing business that caters to a mix of clients and needs, which fall showcases.

A.L.C.

“With our continued retail expansion — most recently in Houston — we’re seeing firsthand that many of our customers are mothers, daughters and sometimes even granddaughters who shop together,” A.L.C. designer Andrea Lieberman said. “We make sure to consider their different lifestyles and wardrobing needs when composing the collection, while still honoring the same central inspiration.”

Her fall inspiration is more a focus, particularly with creating clothing planted in reality with a eye on fluidity, “in both a literal and figurative sense,” she said. She delivers updates to classic ideas like supple leather trousers, layering pieces and precise but not stuffy tailoring.

Her knit range includes classic but also some unexpected ideas, a knit pant, for example, that provided texture but was still sleek, or a long sleeve turtleneck knit dress with a tough of sheerness, cozy and sensual.

Outwear played with updates with faux shearling ideas, a trend that has been big this season, and also oversized, mannish leather coats.

Cinq à Sept

Designer Jane Siskin took inspiration from fall’s natural elements for her latest collection, delivering a range of outerwear and separates that embodied the brand’s signature romantic aesthetic. 

“We like the idea of the romance of the forest and all of the mixed textures — the crunchiness of the leaves and the softness of the light filtering through the branches,” she said. “It’s a really good inspiration for us.” 

Sisken utilized faux and real leather, bouclé denim, satin, sheer organza, lace, tweed and other fabrics to reflect her inspiration. Standout pieces included a brown faux mink coat embellished with brooches, a mustard-hued faux-fur coat paired with matching oversize trousers and a patent leather dress worn over a knit sweater. 

The designer named the collection’s blazer embellished with heritage patches as a key style, explaining the piece is her own spin on a more traditional, menswear style. Sisken also stated that novelty pieces, such as embellished trousers or a printed coat, have been performing well in recent seasons, so her fall collection offers her latest iterations.

Overall the collection’s attention to detail, range of textures and feminine aesthetic showed Sisken’s innate understanding of her clientele and how to create newness season-to-season.

Rag & Bone

Since Jennie McCormick took over as Rag & Bone’s women’s chief merchandising and design officer in July (after Marcus Wainwright’s departure), she’s been focusing on the brand’s longtime codes while utilizing her longtime 17-year history with the brand to guide its latest collections.

“We feel like we’re a real New York brand, we’re rooted in everything that makes her life work, but we also have the traditional British fabrications and -isms,” she said of the fall collection, which was all about where the city meets the countryside. “There’s a lot of expression of outerwear, tailoring, sweaters and denim. Really the things we stand for as a brand.”

In that vein, there was a large amount of outdoor-influenced outerwear; Prince of Wales check tailoring and military-inspired suiting; elevated and textured denim (great as jacquard denim in a barrel shape or double-hem wide-leg silhouette); poplin shirting; cozy and easy knits, and sleeker city-minded leather layers, like a studded leather minidress. 

The lineup was a texturally amplified, commercially friendly, easy-to-wardrobe offering, that debuted just before the company inked a deal to sell to WHP Global and Guess Inc.

Yigal Azrouël

Yigal Azrouël is back and means business. He took a beat during the pandemic and restarted his brand last year with a downtown store and atelier as home base. Fall has him leaning into his strengths — deconstruction, rifts on textures and fabrications — all with his signature utility meets sexy vibe.

A seasoned creative, Azrouël is keen to think “sustainable” with the rebrand, preferring small runs of pieces and keeping distribution supertight. A silver mesh top and matching skirt mimicked chainmail but were soft, a men’s style leather jacket with knit sleeves played with textures, and his draping skills came though on a silver-hued gown that crisscrossed across the body.

His outwear propositions — an oversize trenchcoat in black or paper thin silver, a workwear style with lobster claw fasteners, a light-wash denim wrap coat with white trim and a few reworked vintage furs — were standouts. He dabbled with a few accessories, adding balaclavas and trapper hats, rounding out a collection of pieces with distinctly urban polish, ripe for a new wave of customers to discover.

Lingua Franca

“I knew I always wanted to do Montauk, but I wanted to do it in a way that wasn’t this obvious present day,” Lingua Franca founder and designer Rachelle Hruska MacPherson said during a preview of her fall collection. The robust not-just-knitwear lineup paid homage to “The End”’s ‘60s-era, which Andy Warhol lived at his estate, Eothen, and hosted the likes of Lee Radziwill, Jackie O, Mick Jagger and Peter Beard — a personal inspiration to the designer, as she and her husband bought the house next door.

The inspirations made for grunged-up prepster meets rock-‘n’-roll lineup of some pretty stellar, novelty pieces. For instance, great oyster jacquard RWS extra fine merino wool knits with faux pearl embellishments; “Chanel-meets-Montauk” knit faux tweedy jackets; alpaca blend Peruvian fisherman knit sets with braided collection fabric straps; herringbone tailoring and silk dressing with fabulous handmade wire beaded flowers and mollusks and playful patchwork jumpers, to name a few.

Coming full circle, fall’s lookbook imagery was captured in various locales of Montauk by photographer Sophie Elgort. The sustainably-minded collection, which is available for preorder, was filled with loads of playful and thoughtful details.

Cara Cara

Cara Cara is a contemporary brand that loves prints, patterns and florals. Since its inception in 2019 (founded by Julia Brown, Katie Hobbs and Sasha Martin), the brand has been expanding their feminine ethos beyond easy placement print dresses into a categorically robust business with good diversification and momentum with retail partners, and direct-to-consumer business, up “50 percent year-over-year,” Martin said.

“The silhouettes are fairly simple, we go for what’s really flattering. So for us, it’s really about the patterns,” Brown said of the collection’s era-spanning fall motifs including interiors-inspired houndstooth and Moroccan tiles, as well as moody baroque florals and leopard prints. Beyond an evolution of knitwear, fall was a season of key fabrication expansion with printed denim, printed knit jacquard, plisse silk, printed velvet, cotton sateen and printed slinky viscose jersey.

The baroque floral plissé dressing was both easy and eye-catching; tailoring was crafted with youthful appeal seen in an adorable boxy suit minidress; leopard styles, inspirations of ’70s Manhattan, and signature floral dresses were also available in two-piece, slightly sexier bustier and flounced skirt evening sets.

From day to night, the fall Cara Cara collection displayed moody, very wearable fashions.

L’Agence

L’Agence’s “Into the Woods” fall collection offered a bit of a woodsy, dark feeling that fashion director Tara Rudes Dann was feeling this season. “I thought about how great it was coming out of the pandemic and where we are today — women have found their confidence.”

“We’ve created the perfect jean, T-shirt, blazer, slipdress, so what’s that next evolution?” she said. The biggest extension of this idea stemmed from the brand’s expansion into outerwear that coincidentally nodded to the viral “mob wife” aesthetic.

Fall’s moodiness came through darkly hued leather military trench, cropped croc leather blazers, shearling coats (both real and vegan) and a plaid blanket topcoat, all of which were layered over glammed-up takes of their signature slip dressing, bedazzled denim on denim, feminine tailoring, turtlenecks and sparkling, dressy occasionwear.

“What I love about the sophistication of our silhouettes is they have you feeling luxurious and rich,” Rudes Dann added of the style-minded, commercial styles.

Dauphinette

Dauphinette’s fall 2024 collection embodied designer Olivia Cheng’s free-spirited design ethos, creating kitschy styles that offered vintage lovers ample options to play dress up. The collection had a little of everything — bedazzled swimwear and undergarments, youthful eveningwear, vegan leather HotPants and safety pin embellished styles. The collection, which was created mostly from upcycled materials, largely had an arts and crafts feel to it that made it lean more toward kitschy than cohesive.

“It was a lot about working with fears and things that I’m not traditionally comfortable with because a lot of my art is centered around integrating unconventional materials,” Cheng said. “It’s not just what’s unconventional in general for fashion, but what’s unconventional for me and what are things that I would not typically gravitate toward. I think that this collection has allowed me to incorporate a lot of those things and address various fears or discomforts however you might frame and articulate those with the span of clothing.” 

PatBo

Patricia Bonaldi leaned into femininity for PatBo’s fall 2024 collection, taking inspiration from the women in her life who inspire her.  

“This collection is about femininity,” the designer said. “So, I always say that I’m not afraid to be feminine because I don’t think it makes us vulnerable, I think it gives us strength.” 

This strength was reflected through a color palette of white, black and deep green, a departure from Bonaldi’s typical colorful collections. The darker color palette, however, was given a light touch through the usage of Bonaldi’s signature handmade design techniques, such as hand beading, crochet and lace embroidery. 

This season, Bonaldi experimented with the laser-cutting techniques, creating several cut-out styles that gave some edge to the otherwise feminine silhouettes. The lace looks, like a corset-style dress and cutout style, added sensuality to the collection that played into the feminine theme. 

Tanya Taylor

Tanya Taylor gave menswear-inspired styles her signature feminine spin for fall 2024, starting the design process focusing on a charcoal gray hue and suiting styles. 

“It sometimes feels masculine or traditional and it gives you this imagery of suiting or the past,” Taylor said of the color. “I wanted to challenge myself on how can we make it feminine? How can we make it feel like we’re building a wardrobe for these women that’s soft and inviting and special?” 

Taylor leveraged this inspiration for fresh and modern takes on suiting, such as a dress shirt-style strapless top embellished with black beading paired with a taffeta skirt, or a voluminous polka dot taffeta paired with gray wide-leg trousers. 

The collection was rounded out by other feminine styles that had a close attention to detail. Standout styles included a silk maxiskirt featuring a hand-painted floral design, a trenchcoat and matching knit dress with a floral yarn embroidery and several Fair Isle knitted sweaters that were chunky yet had an airy feel. The designer also introduced suede in the collection with several outerwear styles that continued this attention to detail and complemented the styles nicely with structured silhouettes. 

Balestra

“With fall 2024, we open a new chapter. After the introduction of denim and leather, we have developed complex knitwear pieces with a hyperfeminine look, in line with the brand’s aesthetic. I wanted to experiment with knitwear and Lurex yarns to celebrate the woman’s body through transparencies,” Balestra’s artistic director Sofia Bertolli Balestra said of the storied brand’s latest collection.

Throughout the lineup, she continued to utilize its luxe Italian fabrications while rendering its rich embroideries in youthful, sexy ways. That shine was front and center instance via lurex net dresses (crafted on 19th century “Livers” loom); a tulle party top with chain-like bugle bead embroideries; laminated jersey layers (and panties) and lurex knits, or drapey metal mesh dresses. 

In addition, easy daytime dressing ranged from a new tangerine-colored wool overcoat, or a a clever new denim-effect wool cropped jacket with lengthy wrappable scarf attached to its hem into warm-hued drapey styles, most notably in double-layer power mesh.

PH5

PH5 gave its signature knitwear a corporate update for fall 2024, with designers Wei Lin and Zoe Champion creating a robust collection of new and updated styles. 

“We’re trying to paint this picture of a busy bad b–h boss lady reading the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, but really on the side she just likes to knit and decompress,” Lin said. “There’s kind of that story going on.”

The designers leveraged that inspiration to create a range of outerwear, sweaters, skirts and dresses in PH5’s signature trendy knitwear, this season focusing on a cobalt blue hue that gave many styles a jolt of energy. The scarf motif was seen throughout the collection in interesting ways, such as sewn into sweaters or with a plaid scarf-like print seen on various garments.

The collection also updated the brand’s popular wavy motif with styles like a long-sleeve dress designed with a wire to give the style a three-dimensional feel and a bralette embellished with a similar wavy wire detail.

Overall the collection stayed true to PH5’s kitschy roots and showed its versatility designing with knitwear, creating new and interesting styles each season.

Overcoat

New York-based brand Overcoat, under the creative guise of Ryuhei Oomaru, whose professional journey hails as a pattern maker, mentored by Comme des Garçons’ Rei Kawakubo, continues to imbue his fan base with unbeatable outerwear styles, which season over season continue to challenge design norms and have evolved into a fully coed collection of ready-to-wear.

The brand’s latest collection is informed by shapes and forms that are found in everyday situations, such as the simplicity of an apple peel, which is then interpreted into shapes like cubes and tubes — structures which in turn “form the simplest of patterns but offer infinite options and possibilities,” according to Oomaru.

Most of Oomaru’s designs this season feature details such as an adaptable pleated shoulder detail that allows for oversize shirt jackets and leather bombers to expand and contract to adjust to the wearer’s shoulder, a patternmaking craft that has become a signature element within the Overcoat offering.

The brand also collaborated with British graphic designer Peter Miles, whose work spans devising logos, packaging and advertising campaigns for Celine, Gabriela Hearst, Wales Bonner, Phoebe Philo and other fashion houses. The partnership sees Miles create a replica of the famous “We Buy Gold” poster signs that are ever-present in the New York landscape, translated into jackets, oversize shirts and T-shirts.

His outerwear range remains strong, with iterations of double-breasted coats in brown corduroy, gray oversize plaids and floor-length robe coats that continue to solidify the brand with signature styles that are both commercially friendly and wearable, all while continuing to have the freedom of exploration.

NIHL

Designer Neil Grotzinger continues to constantly progress the queer dialogue forward with his label, Nihl, which over the seasons has presented designs ranging from wrestling singlets, shirting covered in a rainbow of sequins, as well as the frequent use of jockstraps as decoration rather than for athletic function — redefining masculine stereotypes along the way.

Grotzinger’s lineup more often than not manifests in the form of intricate embellishments on items of clothing that have masculine connotations, yet this season the designer is utilizing personal photographs of his travels and daily life to invigorate his lineup.

“The initial concept for this collection was basically how can I create like hyper-sensorial sensations without requiring a bead on every single stitch,” said Grotzinger to WWD at a studio preview.

Photographs ranging from Las Vegas casino carpeting to ceiling-lighting arrangements such as the golden chandeliers found at the Venetian Hotel, or even an image of a dirty steel door, blown-up images of concrete flooring, all fueled the designer’s infatuation of textures.

The array of images served as the focal point for most of these designs, which were plastered on everything from abstract halter tops that looked like aprons, tailored coats, dresses and even suiting — all done in a satin charmeuse that more often than not gave off a subtle shine.

Although the lineup felt like a mesh of randomness, Grotzinger was able to hone in on his design codes and present silhouettes that permeated via the queer lens that his label has been attached to in past seasons.

“There’s so much context when you try not to be so literal about things. It’s just like this random object that has meaning to me, but I can’t describe it. It’s like a femoral in some way,” said Grotzinger.

N.Hoolywood Compile

Designer Daisuke Obana has long been influenced by America and Americana, a trend that reflects a nostalgia for a simpler, bygone era and a celebration of American heritage.

For his fall Compile line, Obana is revisiting his greatest hits, with strong references of vintage clothing (a constant inspiration source for the designer), with the end game of refining and perfecting them.

Highlights of the brand’s long-standing heritage included oversize bomber leather jackets with equally massive patch pockets, oversize plaids shown in pieces ranging from knitwear, heavy wool overshirts and cropped jackets, with tailoring continuing to be a strong contender for Obana’s vision, pumping out oversize topcoats, corduroy double breasted suits and slightly voluminous gray check overshirts.

The brand’s affinity toward workwear and denim continues to be imbued by oversize corduroy bombers paired with an oversized carpenter style denim trouser, as well as pleated khaki trousers.

N.Hoolywood has become a social and cultural mirror of America, and Obana continues to showcase collections that transcend eras while maintaining his grasp on the fashion landscape.

Trina Turk

Although Los Angeles designer Trina Turk may forever be associated with Palm Springs, where she’s doing a talk and having a fashion show during this month’s Modernism Week, hre interest in modernist architecture and style is global. 

Her fall 2024 collection was inspired by French photographer Romain Laprade’s images of Dakar, Senegal, and the colors and textures he captured there. 

“Doing a neutral collection was actually quite new for us,” the designer said of the men’s and women’s lineup in earthy tones that included leopard jacquard and Prince of Wales check suiting with leather trim; military and safari inspired cargo vests and pants; a maxidress and men’s silk faille suit in deep orange and brown geometric and floral patterns. 

A sophisticated black laser-cut flutter chiffon top and straight skirt was another departure for the brand as it continues to elevate and expand to new corners.