Subscribe
Cassius Life Featured Video
CLOSE
Louis Vuitton : Runway - Paris Fashion Week - Menswear F/W 2021-2022

Source: Dominique Charriau / Getty

The Council of Fashion Designers of America decided to bring back New York’s Fashion Week to its in-person format, after seeing the seasonal event reduced to a virtual affair in its last two runs due to the coronavirus pandemic. From September 8 through September 12, the bi-annual celebration of fashion returns to allowing designers to showcase their newest creations to live audiences (although the CDFA still encouraged its virtual option), and this time around, there will be two Met galas to commemorate the comeback.

Steven Kolb, CEO of the CFDA, issued a statement saying, “With current signs of progress in the pace of vaccinations and the strategic, gradual reopening and tangible reawakening of New York City, we look forward to a strong fashion season that celebrates the best of American fashion in both physical and digital presentation formats.”

Andrew Bolton, the MOMA’s curator-in-charge at their Costume Institute, told the New York Times how a number of the events planned during those five days would be about “a celebration of the American fashion community, which suffered so much during the pandemic.”

Bolton also further hinted this year’s NYFW may not only function in its standard capacity of artistic self-expression and flamboyance but as an added commentary on the myriad changes that are taking place in American culture. “I think American fashion is undergoing a renaissance,” he said, “with young American designers at the vanguard of discussions around diversity, inclusion, sustainability and conscious creativity. I find it incredibly exciting.”

One week after NYFW, the Met will unveil a two-part exhibition series. Its first part, “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion,” will celebrate the 75th birthday of the Costume Institute, showing the various shifts in American fashion throughout its lifetime and the role that institute has played in that. The series’ second part, “In America: An Anthology of Fashion,” will have involvement from Bradford Young, the cinematographer from Selma and When They See Us. This was intentional on the part of Bolton given that every single one of the institute’s existing curators is white.

Bolton believes the full return of the NYFW and the upcoming exhibition will be “triumphant — partly because of the modernity of the clothes and the models, but also partly because of the modernity of the attitude.”