The NYFW Group Chat

Consider this your curated follow list for the final stretch

Since I started my career as a journalist in 2009, I have attended approximately 30 New York Fashion Weeks, two Paris Fashion Weeks, and a handful of satellite versions in cities eager to prove they, too, had a runway.

Needless to say, I am exhausted.

I love fashion. I always have. I love building a look and spotting a new designer before everyone else claims them. There’s a particular satisfaction in putting two pieces together and knowing it works (and when a camera and mirror agree with me too? Fuhgeddaboudit!). What I don’t love is how quickly the math adds up. I spend an unreasonable amount of money on clothes despite being, in my own opinion, the best person I know at finding a deal on Vestiaire Collective. Case in point: a pair of Hermès trousers Lauren Sherman once wore in Interview, in a deep tobacco brown, that I decided I needed immediately. I bought them in black to be practical. They are about two sizes too big and need to be taken in. Great.

This New York Fashion Week, which runs from February 11 through February 16, I opted out of the shows and parties. Instead, I headed to Palm Beach to spend time with family and speak on a panel at a private members club, which felt more appealing than running between venues in too-high heels. That doesn’t mean I’m not paying attention. Fashion is less an event for me than a habit, and I follow it with the same intensity whether I am in the front row or on my phone.

Five days of shows produce an overwhelming amount of content, so I narrowed it down to the creators I have actually been learning from and enjoying (and from there, narrowed it even a little further for you). If you’re just getting your bearings this week, whether you’re interested in Public School’s return to the calendar or Ralph Lauren’s dramatic coats and structured tailoring, start here. There are two days left, which is plenty of time to catch up. Happy Valentine’s Day.

I love how Laura Reilly of Magasin breaks fashion week into individual days and even time slots. It lets me follow what is happening in near (or at least near-enough) real time. She mixes the show highlights I care about with the stray bits of news she gathers along the way. Some of my favorites include: Karine Kazarian, a beloved facialist of the internet set, told Reilly that her former clients the Olsen twins “were such big fans they had once tried to buy Biologique Rechereche before they started The Row.” Reilly also noted that cigarettes were served at Gwyneth Paltrow’s GWYN breakfast, and at the Public School show she pointed out that a dozen models wore similar felted caps. “It’s no coincidence that the backwards drivers cap was a JFK Jr. favorite, and Ryan Murphy’s ‘Love Story’ is set to debut this week. CBK moodboard culture has finally tipped over into menswear.” (I could not agree more, as made apparent by my Financial Times article). She also observed that Isabelle Wilkinson may be building the next Brunello Cucinelli, comparing the following around Attersee to “the women in my mother’s generation who discovered the Italian clothier in their earlier years and use it as the benchmark by which they compare all other brands.” She even floated the idea that Attersee may source a certain fabric from the same mill used by Phoebe Philo. I love details like that.

If you have not been reading Rachel Tashjian since her days at The Washington Post, what have you been doing? She is now the senior style reporter at CNN and brings the same sharp perspective to that role. She grouped the Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors, Marc Jacobs, Proenza Schouler, and Calvin Klein collections under one swift observation: “Almost every designer I’ve visited so far this season has a very special someone on their mood board: themselves! Why is everyone looking to their earlier collections to make new stuff?”

Jess Graves has long been my go to for reliable fashion intelligence. Even before you know her personally, her writing feels like the friend who will tell you the truth. I trust her when The Love List says purple is rising on the runways, a “purple reign.” She also wrote that “everyone is showing fuzzy and pettable pieces this season--fur is everywhere, both on the streets and on the runways.” She shared the playlist from the TWP show, which is such a fun, quirky touch. She was also the first I saw to note that “female designers have taken the city back, which is why I think all of the clothes I’ve seen so far are very grounded.” Girl power, baby.

Derek Blasberg has always had an insider’s vantage point at fashion week. He tends to have the best seat in the room and the context that comes with it. I was briefly his editor at Architectural Digest and know he brings that access to everything he does. From Marc Jacobs, he wrote, “the invitation stated it’d start at 6:30pm SHARP--and they weren’t messing around. When the last of 39 models strutted by, followed by the designer himself, I looked at my watch and it was 6:34pm.” He described fashion week “as the world’s most glamorous business conference,” and weighed in on what models may or may not be earning. He has promised an end of week roundup, which I am expecting to rival his letter “You asked, I answered--what REALLY happens at fashion week?” We’re waiting, Derek!

Models, But Make It Artsy

Something I’ve noticed three times already this fashion week is the rise of non-models on major runways. Smaller brands have done this for years, casting friends and creatives instead of agency girls. It still feels different when a mainstream house does it and doesn’t over-explain it. (We hate all that pontificating, don’t we?)

At Proenza Schouler’s Fall 2026 show on February 10, author Zoe Dubno walked in the lineup. She wrote Happiness and Love, a satirical look at the shallow and performative nature of the New York art world. Two days later, on February 12, Carolina Herrera’s Fall 2026 show did something similar. Wes Gordon sent out painter Amy Sherald, photographer Ming Smith, sculptor Rachel Feinstein and her daughter Flora Feinstein, artist Eliza Douglas, and gallerist Hannah Traore. And on February 14th, Eckhaus Latta put GQ’s Samuel Hine on the runway (the designers Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta are known to cast their shows with friends in addition to professional models; here’s a story about their casting process for the Spring 2016 show).

I first met Zoe last November, when Molly Jong-Fast and I invited her to a party that quickly became one of those New York media nights that people are still referencing. (And plagues those who weren’t there).

Dubno’s appearance on the runway has already been noted by Vanessa Friedman at the New York Times and by Vogue, but I loved seeing her up there so much that I asked her about it myself. There was no elaborate casting saga. “They emailed me and asked!” she told me. What she did not expect was how physical it would be. The runway coach was Mandy Dyonne Lieveld, who has trained models for houses including Ralph Lauren, Christian Dior, and Jacquemus. “The walking coach basically gave me a crash course in walking in heels and I probably logged 5k steps walking back and forth in the Proenza office,” Zoe said. “Then she told me I needed to stop bobbing so much and my arm swing too much.” She quipped that “models are very young for a reason my god my hip flexors hurt,” a dramatic claim for someone who is thirty.

Backstage, she said, “the models were so funny and smart and great to be around. When you’re lined up waiting chitchatting they are all cracking jokes and one of them who once opened Chanel was telling me all about her favorite novels.” She also left with a styling revelation: “My grandma was right I should brush my hair back like that!!”

Enjoying RPS? For a few more days, most of it is still outside the velvet rope. Starting next week, the majority moves into the paid tier. Free subscribers will still get a taste, but the best material will live inside. If you’ve been thinking about upgrading, this is your window before the gates close.

In today’s letter: Public School’s return, Derek Blasberg, Ralph Lauren’s coats, a 1996 J.Crew sweater, Clavicular’s runway debut, Laura Reilly, Rachel Tashjian, Saks Global’s bankruptcy, Jess Graves, Zoe Dubno, Mandy Dyonne Lieveld and more.

• Braden Peters, the online looksmaxxing personality known as Clavicular, walked in Elena Velez’s February 12 show at New York Fashion Week. The New York Times documented how a livestream philosopher of uh, “male self-improvement” found himself credentialed for fashion week.

• A 1996 patchwork J.Crew sweater has quietly become the vintage grail of downtown menswear obsessives, according to Emilia Petrarca. Her letter, Shop Rat, tracks how one striped Shetland knit sent collectors rerouting Ubers and inspired designer knockoffs. Maybe pre-quiet-luxury J.Crew was at its best when it was a little unhinged.

• It seems Saks Global’s bankruptcy is already casting a shadow over New York Fashion Week. According to the New York Post, designers are trimming shows and rethinking parties as unpaid bills linger. Uh-oh. The calendar feels leaner this season, that’s for sure.

• Business of Fashion accused New York Fashion Week of having an identity crisis. Honestly, it sort of tracks.

What did I miss?