Eckhaus Latta Wins New York Fashion Week

On Saturday, Saks gave a dinner for Jonathan Anderson, the creative director of Loewe, on the rooftop terrace of Pace Gallery in Chelsea, and among the guests were the actors Morgan Spector and Murray Bartlett (Armond in the first season of White Lotus). On Sunday night, it was Alaïa on the roof of the Brant Foundation in the East Village, where the dinner guests included Linda Evangelista, Karlie Kloss, and the artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, 75 people gathered in a loft in Tribeca to celebrate Eckhaus Latta, the label of Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta. Actually, they used two fabulous lofts in the same building, one for drinks and another for dinner, which was held at two long tables and cooked and served in the family style by Momofuku. The meal featured ginger scallion noodles and a slow-roasted pork shoulder glazed with brown sugar, and immediately after, waiters offered single-malt Scotch (Glenlivet, a sponsor of the evening) and small brown bags containing a lighter and weed.

Eckhaus Latta
Photo: THISTLE BROWN/Courtesy of Eckhaus Latta

The weed was a nice, almost comic touch from a pair of designers who don’t normally play the fashion game — that is, throw fancy dinners and parties. And despite the unusual setup, Eckhaus and Latta are still on the outside. The dinner was, in fact, a show. Just as the meal was underway, and after Eckhaus had thanked everyone for coming, a woman with curly black hair named Kate Berlant rose from her seat and said, “It’s really punk to subvert the prestige culture of Fashion Week. I just feel relaxed that there are no celebrities here. No one here is gongeous. You know? People here are beautiful, but some people are, like, Huh?”

A moment later, Berlant, a comedian and an actress, had positioned herself at the head of the tables and between them, like a plane lining up at La Guardia. And then she screamed: “It’s a show, and you’re going to walk the runway!” After launching herself down the path between the tables, Berlant, who declared, “This feels really fucking good” — to war whoops from the crowd — began calling out names: “Camilla … Jemima Kirke … Susan Cianciolo … Ella Emhoff …” Even Eckhaus and Latta did a turn on the “catwalk.”

Eckhaus Latta
Photo: THISTLE BROWN/Courtesy of Eckhaus Latta

The whole thing was over in less than ten minutes; everyone returned to the food and conversation, and, in a way, that was the genius of it. The “show,” with some people wearing new spring styles from the brand and others in older pieces that they owned, seemed as unforced as it could be. The designers said they simply wanted to try something different this season. “We love a show, but the last two felt a bit like autopilot,” Latta said. “We knew what was going to happen.”

And isn’t that largely fashion’s problem — we know what’s coming?

The concept of making the audience part of the show is not new. Dries Van Noten once staged an anniversary show on a long banquet table while his guests gazed up. In 2021, Balenciaga held its legendary “red carpet” show, in which all the attendees were part of the action, and the Milan brand Sunnei often incorporates the audience in its fun.

Latta and Eckhaus, though, managed to do things in a fresh and ironic way. As Eckhaus said, “It’s a playful way to see and be seen, rather than putting it all on a pedestal.” Contrast that thinking to Ralph Lauren’s extravaganza in the Hamptons last week.

Eckhaus Latta’s latest collection, which included novel ribbed jersey tops worn as deconstructed doubles, nylon blazers with drawstrings for a scrunched shape, their custom-dyed denim, and some terrific knits, was photographed in a studio by Thistle Brown.

Other shows over the weekend offered few stylistic departures or surprises. Phillip Lim, celebrating his 20th year in business, said his main thought was “to reconnect with my own joy, why I moved to New York, why I got into this insane industry.” He smiled broadly on that note and added, “Remembering just to have fun again.” His show, with a terrific cast of young and older models, successfully covered that mood with casual, roomy separates in cotton lace, denim inset with a camo print, a sleeveless taupe blazer with striped pajama pants, and some easy slip dresses in silk and lace. He offered a wide range of looks, most flirty with a slight California surfer-girl undertone for both young and grownup girls. And somehow it all held together.

Philip Lim
Photo: Getty Images

Photo: Getty Images

The same could not be said of Catherine Holstein’s Khaite collection on Saturday. Though Holstein gratefully shed some of her recent work’s weird and often pretentious darkness, she got lost in cloudy volumes of sheer fabric that mildly recalled Prada’s ethereal dresses from this past spring. (There’s been a lot of Prada influence this season, both in floaty, airy bits — at Prabal Gurung, for example — and a surge in deconstructed tailoring.) Most of Holstein’s attempts at what appeared to be abstract draping, for dresses and a few tops, strained comprehension. They just looked bunchy and awkward. However, some of her opening looks featuring crochet and hand-knitting were new and different. As usual, the collection included a lot of black leather styles, all generally well done. Still, it puzzles me why Holstein makes everything look so dressy and precious. It suggests she only has one gear.

Khaite
Photo: Courtesy of Khaite

Khaite
Photo: Courtesy of Khaite

Khaite
Photo: Courtesy of Khaite

Prabal Gurung’s collection, presented outdoors near City Hall, was generally strong, opening with a corseted shirred bodysuit with full-cut trousers with a draped effect. After one too many trains and oversize suits, the collection found its motor in a beautiful, tight-fitting, sheer black dress embroidered with bursts of colors. Gurung often seeks an East-West connection in his clothes, and he ended the show with a nod to the Hindu festival of Holi and a group of models dressed in simple and sporty white cotton outfits. I wish he had included more of those shapes in the main lineup.

Prabal Gurung
Photo: Getty Images

Prabal Gurung
Photo: Getty Images

Ib Kamara put on a terrific show for Off-White, notably those ultrasleek “suiting” styles for women based on the common tracksuit, most with a cool wrap skirt that wrapped just enough. I loved the silhouette he proposed with those looks.

Photo: Courtesy of Off-White

Monse reclaimed its original charm with an excellent show that deconstructed classic sportswear, like rugby and polo shirts, a trench coat (mixed with a gray hoodie), and the school blazer. The designers Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia included adorable leather bags based on footballs and, perhaps, the best-made slip dresses so far of the New York show. The same goes for dresses and, as well, a polo shirt and pencil skirt in milky shades of pastel sequins.

Monse
Photo: Marcelo Soubhia/Courtesy of Monse

Monse
Photo: Marcelo Soubhia/Courtesy of Monse

Kim said the response to the sleeveless navy gabardine suit made for Michelle Obama has been overwhelming and that the company did as much in sales during the week after the Democratic National Convention as it had done the previous year.

“It was just a really beautiful moment for us as a brand,” said Garcia. “It was transformative.”