During the last show, international designers Hengki Kawilarang, Lisa Ju, Taússy Daniel, and Victorian Maiden showcased their work. There was one look that particularly stood out – Taússy Daniel’s black haute couture dress in a shape of a rose– it received an ovation from the audience.

Launched in October 2017, Global Fashion Collective (GFC) is a platform led by a group of individuals who share the goal of cultivating an inclusive and diverse fashion industry. Global Fashion Collective’s mission is to accelerate designer development by producing innovative runway showcases in fashion capitals globally, increasing international media visibility, and expanding new market opportunities for their show’s participating designers. After showcasing in Paris, New York, and Tokyo, the Collective plans to expand its reach with upcoming shows in London and Milan for 2023.

Here are the GFC designers who closed the night at New York Fashion Week.

TAÚSSY DANIEL

Taússy Daniel‘s stunning collection of formal evening wear was a mix of wearable art. All statement pieces came in shades of seafoam, chartreuse, and black and gold.

Taússy Daniel was born in 1991, in Maputo, the capital of Moçambique. With her unique designs, Daniel focuses her energy on women who identify with eclectic style where the silhouette plays a central role. The brand emphasizes the feminine body using only selected cutting techniques and the highest grade of materials.

HENGKI KAWILARANG

Hengki Kawilarang is a fashion designer who started his career in 2001 in Jakarta, Indonesia, with a line of feminine, glamorous designs with the intention to make every woman feel like a diva. The designs are full of glamorous elements such as crystals, feathers, and sparkles.

LISA JU

Lisa Ju’s collection embraces and highlights female curves. The latest collection is titled “Renceum Réjouissances. Renceum means sparkling in Sundanese, and Réjouissances means festivities in French.

Ju combined her Indonesian background with her immense passion for French couture designs.

“I’m blessed to be influenced by a lot of different points of view growing up in Indonesia, which has so many different cultures, so many diverse textiles, crafts, arts, and yet a combination of original indigenous tradition and multiple modern foreign influences — that shaped me as a designer,” Ju said.

Ju reinvented Indonesia’s traditional fabric, Batik Priangan, and was inspired by its patterns. Her designs are enriched with the complexities of handmade fabric manipulation techniques, beads and crystal detailing applications, and structural line design. They also incorporate hand-painted fabric and heritage accessories from Indonesia to make it more avant-garde and to support local artists.

VICTORIAN MAIDEN

Victorian Maiden could easily dress the cast of Bridgerton. The collection took us back to the Victorian era.

The brand started in Japan in 1999 and is known for being not only “Kawaii” but also for adding elegant and coquettish elements to complete the fashion aesthetic. Victorian Maiden will soon celebrate its 25th anniversary.

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Valette Studio’s Spring/Summer 2023 collection is nothing short of extraordinary. Inspired by the androgynous beauty and seductive allure of American actor Joe Dallessandro, as well as his effortless take on clothing– the new collection is an ode to sartorial freedom and emancipation, underlining playfulness and personality as opposed to stereotypes, rules, and uniformity.

Pop Art flowers, psychedelic motifs, and dynamic stripes are some of the collection’s main highlights, evoking the joyfulness and hedonism of the late 1960s. Skin-tight tank tops–one of Dallessandro’s everyday staples–and sleeveless body-conscious shirts emphasize the shoulders and chest, paired with pleated tailored poplin pants, skimpy shorts, or loose drawstring trousers. 

Even the tailoring feels more laid-back this season, with zip-up blousons, utility coats, denim blazers, and fitted vests complementing the overall silhouette. Terry cloth separates evoke the language of casual sportswear and lazy summer holidays. Toying with the idea of 1980s gender-fuck, as opposed to today’s genderless, the designer Pierre-François Valette crafts streamlined day dresses and cropped tops with an anatomical edge, as well as tailored vests exposing skin in unexpected ways. A ‘V’ is embroidered on several pieces this season, including striking silver leather.

On the accessory front, large denim messenger bags and substantial necklaces made out of metal, rope, and contrasting rings bring imperfection and the appeal of the ‘homemade’ to mind. Sensual and spontaneous, this summer collection exudes confidence, as well as a willingness to dress for oneself, and not for others.

I discovered Valette Studio by Pierre-François Valette last winter when they presented their Men’s 2022 Fall Collection, which was a mix of formal and casual, flavored by Pop Art, Andy Warhol, and gender-fluid performers like Freddy Mercury, David Bowie, and Mick Jagger. It was my favorite collection of that season and this new designer reminded me a  bit of the crowd-favorite French Jacquemus. 

Valette Studio’s clothes are for all genders, as around 60 percent of the designer’s customers are female. 

Pierre-François Valette founded Valette Studio in 2020. The graduate of the IFM trained with Isabel Marant and the house of Saint Laurent. He has an idiosyncratic “casual couture” aesthetic, in sync with new generations migrating between formal and streetwear. Each collection explores art and literature references, and although Valette Studio offers ready-to-wear styles, it functions in a modern “Maison de couture” spirit.

I talked to the designer to find out more about the brand and what he thinks about the future of fashion. 

I love how genderless your designs are. Who is your targeted customer base? Is it millennial or Gen Z creatives from the city? What’s the percentage of female/male customers who buy your clothes? 

Thank you very much for the compliment! Indeed, when I imagine a collection, I do not think of the feminine or the masculine, I imagine more an atmosphere, an environment, and a way of life in its entirety. People are free enough to know what they want to wear without us designers imposing on them a wardrobe that is for her and a wardrobe that is for him, right?!

My target clientele is a dynamic, positive generation that works, lives, loves, travels, discovers… and doesn’t want to change clothes three times a day. Clothes should liberate, not constrain. The look accompanies life, not clutters it. It is also for a generation in the perpetual migration of formality and streetwear.

My sales are about 60% women and the rest are men. But clothing has no gender for me, it has its own place.

What’s the vision for the brand in the next five years? Any plans on showing in New York?

My idea for Valette Studio in the next few years is that people can discover, wear, and buy my collections all over the world! I also hope to meet and continue to collaborate with photographers, videographers, painters, dancers, musicians, journalists, and writers… creation is something that is shared and experienced together.

To show in New York and all the major fashion capitals would be something incredible for my team and me. 

I’ve always loved NYC for its energy, its forward-thinking, and the freedom it represents. Many New York icons are a source of inspiration for me like Warhol has been for my AW22-23 collection with the New York Factory- which has attracted so much talent.

How do you see the future of fashion? Do you see Fashion Weeks eventually getting rid of “Men’s” or “Women’s” and just presenting all at the same time?

Fashion is, I think, something adaptable, modular, and therefore terribly free and modern. Fashion comes and goes. In this period of the health crisis, it has been able to adapt and continue to express itself and to be seen differently. However, I deeply believe that a garment is something concrete, real, that you have to touch, smell, and feel. I’ve always found fashion and everything it stands for to be absolutely exciting– of novelty, surprise, challenge, and above all dream and joy.

Fashion– and this is already the case– will gradually lean towards something asexual and return to what it is: fashion for expressing oneself, fashion for telling stories, fashion for dreaming. Simply fashion to get better, for every day.

Valette Studio is definitely on our radar and we are excited for what the future holds. 

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Gone are the voluminous puffer jackets and aprés-ski wool sweaters we saw last season; in their place, sheer fabrics, slinky dresses and skirt suits. There were nods to wintry weather, like shearling and quintessential fall hues of brown and red, but all styled in a less-is-more credo that dominated the runways. Case in point: turtlenecks slashed and wrapped around the torso like a bandage in Marc Jacobs’s off-runway, digitally-released collection.  

Frostbite concerns aside, there was so much to love this season. Grand, glitzy dresses and billowy maxi skirts were made so luxe at Altuzarra, Oscar de la Renta and Carolina Herrera. Hemlines went up and oodles of sequins trickled down the runways, in what can only be interpreted as life, post the worst parts of COVID, getting better. As we ooze out of the cozy, lounge-y, bundled-up feeling of 2021, things are definitely looking up. 

Here, our round-up of the hottest fall/winter trends from New York Fashion Week, a premonition of what we will be wearing come fall. 

Party Like It’s 2019

The parade of sequin paillettes on dresses at Oscar de la Renta, Christian Cowan and Altuzarra sent one clear message: we are so ready to get into clubs again. More after-dark dressing took the form of slinky off-shoulder dresses; standouts were a ruched Victor Glemaud dress in a warm latte hue and a white one-shoulder piece from Khaite. 

Sheer Thing

And the party vibe just kept going. Sheer pieces screamed show ‘em what you’ve got, from a dress with a sheer skirt and arms at Christian Siriano, to a completely see-thru top dress at LaQuan Smith. A sheer black striped dress at Jonathan Simkhai took the spotlight, declaring in one gorgeous gown that the time for the re-emergence of glamor is nigh.

Hole-y Julia Fox 

Cutouts have become a fashion week staple, and this season, “It” girl Julia Fox started the trend off with a bang at LaQuan Smith. Fox stormed the runway, fierce gaze in tow, in a black floor-length turtleneck dress with slashes above and below her chest. The crowd went wild. Other shows—like Prabal Gurung and Elena Velez—had dresses with cut-outs in the same spots. 

Up and Away

As much as maxi skirts had their moment this season (that pleated leather black maxi skirt at Altuzarra, paired with a striped sweater and fur-collared jacket—so much ooh), hemlines were on the rise. There were miniskirts in bold, saturated colors and prints at Sergio Hudson and Adam Lippes, and feather-trimmed short dresses at Lisa Von Tang and Bronx and Banco– all clear signs of a collective movement away from the loungewear year that was 2021. 

Cold Shoulders 

Bustiers and corsets, renewed for yet another season, were a dominant go-to party look on the runways. Our faves: a Madonna-esque corset at Carolina Herrera mellowed down with a pair of tailored trousers, leather moto and furry, winter-appropriate bustiers at Dion Lee, and another made sheer and accented with beads and glittery bands at No Sesso.

Edited by Demi Vitkute.

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