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Instead of looking forward, Raul Lopez dug into his past. He presented ideas from his previous collections, which he feels are more relevant now than ever given the political climate.
“I’ve been in a dark place and I wanted to reference myself for this collection because it just felt like the right thing to do,” he said.
Who is Lopez? He’s a Dominican designer who was raised in New York and cofounded Hood by Air with Shayne Oliver. He spent his youth indulging in house music and hanging out in the ballroom scene, a creative safe space for LGBTQ people of color.
All of those facets came through in his collection, which was full of reconfigured takes on garments that are near and dear to his heart. He reimagined JNCO jeans with heavy cuffs and zippers, added leather jackets to culottes, and spliced the back of blazers with cutouts. Multiple garments were merged to create one piece, which was executed nicely.
Little details from his roots also came through. A model walked the runway wearing industrial stilts, which Lopez said reminded him of New York scaffolding. Clothes were stamped with Feminine Destruction, the name of a transgender ballroom dancer — but also, Lopez said,

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For their fall collection, designers William Watson and Vincent Oshin of Death to Tennis presented a collection based on their take of how they see the world — and the fashion world.
“We wanted to show more elevated show pieces,” said the designers backstage. This was evident in the incorporation of more color and floral prints (mostly jacquards) in the coats, bomber jackets, shirts and pants, which added a much-needed punch to the otherwise dark lineup.
Utility details were abundant, seen in a multipocket vest, oversize patch pockets on jackets and on trousers.
The collection needed editing, but it was refreshing to see vibrant, wearable show pieces.

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Sometimes designers are so married to a theme that they hit you over the head with it. The references become so gimmicky that they lose any real meaning.
For fall, Feng Chen Wang, who is from China but splits her time between London, Paris and New York, explored the idea of home and what that means to her. There were some literal interpretations — like the 239, which is the number of her childhood residence, and the word “home,” which showed up in graphics — but she extrapolated on the concept in a way that felt clever as opposed to obvious.
To invoke a sense of comfort, the runway was dotted with white, stuffed versions of household items such as a toilet, couch, sofa and a bathtub. She brought this idea into the collection with the accessories, which included a backpack designed to mimic a telephone and an oversized key hanging from a belt.
In terms of the clothes, which came in a mostly navy, orange and olive color palette, Wang is known for bringing innovation to streetwear staples, and that continued for fall.
She showed a cropped denim trench coat paired with matching cargo pants, voluminous puffer jackets made of patent leather and

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Teamwork, the urban housewife, matriarchy and cowgirls are among the diverse influences that designers cited for fall.

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GUCCI’S MONREAL WALLS: Gucci’s collaboration with Spanish artist Ignasi Monreal on the spring 2018 ad campaign are visible on the brand’s Art Walls in New York and Milan.
In New York, the location features portraits of two women wearing the latest Gucci eyewear styles in the artist’s signature surreal style.
In Milan, the wall presents a work inspired by the couple in Jan van Eyck’s famous 1434 painting, “The Arnolfini Portrait,” and “The Garden of Earthly Delights (1490-1500)” by Hieronymus Bosch.
 

The Gucci Art Wall in Milan. 

 
Gucci said a new Art Wall will be unveiled in Hong Kong in mid-February.
Executed in New York by Colossal Media and in Milan by Urban Vision, the Art Walls will be on display for about two months.
The wall in New York covers 8,208 square feet on Lafayette Street in the SoHo neighborhood, while the 1,900-square-foot wall in Milan is located on Largo la Foppa, in the artsy Brera area and near Corso Garibaldi.
In May, both murals were illustrated by Angelica Hicks. 
Monreal in December collaborated on Gucci’s Gift Giving campaign developing imagery that was featured in a dedicated book. Spanning many categories — ranging from T-shirts and footwear to handbags, jewelry, children’s wear and even porcelain items — the product selection was

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Ugly sneakers have stampeded into luxury fashion to become the improbable “it” shoe in the last year. So much so that Louis Vuitton, where Nicolas Ghesquiere introduced the Nineties sci-fi Archlight with a generously proportioned cushy sole for spring, is opening a pop-up shop specifically devoted to the style for a month in New York City. The temporary store will open at 122 Greene Street in SoHo on Thursday in advance of the worldwide launch of the Archlight sneaker on Feb. 23. The store will remain open until March 10. The SoHo space, chosen because the sneaker clientele tends to be a downtown crowd, and designed by the Louis Vuitton team, will be the only sneaker pop-up — the house has done fragrance pop-ups in the past — and will carry an exclusive all-black colorway of the style. Sneakers aren’t new for Vuitton but the Archlight was a major statement on Ghesquiere’s spring runway, shown in contrast to the elaborate 18th-century inspired ready-to-wear pieces.

The Louis Vuitton Archlight sneaker in all black will be exclusive to the SoHo pop-up. 

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COPENHAGEN — Despite a more compact four-day schedule, Copenhagen Fashion Week’s fall 2018 edition left the impression of a growing international hub, offering an amalgamation of trade shows, runway presentations and consumer-facing side events exulting Danish design.
For brands, the Danish capital seems to fit into a natural void left by the major fashion capitals. “When you think of fashion, you think of the four big ones,” said Stavros Karelis, founder of London-based concept store Machine-A and buying director for Showstudio, who curated an installation at the Copenhagen International Fashion Fair. “But I think we have reached a moment where people are looking outside the current systems because, yes, it’s great to be in London, Paris, [Milan] or New York, but there are so many markets around. Seoul, Shanghai, here. It’s nice to explore new territories.”
Copenhagen’s fashion week, which ended Feb. 2, unfurled against a healthy backdrop. In 2017, total exports of Danish fashion rose 5 percent to 28.7 billion Danish kroner, or $4.8 billion at current exchange, while domestic turnover grew 2 percent after experiencing a lackluster 2016, according to figures from the Danish Fashion & Textile trade association.
Among the country’s key foreign markets are Germany (14 percent growth, to

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NEW YORK — It’s balloon mania at Calvin Klein.
The latest iteration of Calvin Klein Inc.’s multiyear partnership with The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Inc. was unveiled Tuesday at the brand’s flagship at 654 Madison Avenue here. Warhol’s “Silver Clouds” has been reimagined in an installation that is open to the public to view and interact with through Feb. 28.
Warhol’s original artwork featured 15 gleaming, pillowlike balloons, floating through the interior of his 47th Street clubhouse, which was named Silver Factory. “Silver Clouds” was a rare and iconoclastic piece of its time, blurring traditional boundaries of the relationship between artwork and viewer, and was installed in 1966 at New York’s Leo Castelli Gallery.
Re-created this year by Calvin Klein in the same ratio as Warhol’s work, hundreds of untethered, chromelike “clouds” are filled with a mix of ambient air and helium. The pieces hover and float freely in midair until they are impacted by the presence and movement of visitors. The balloons bob throughout the three-level store, some rising to the ceiling and others gathered on the floor and in front of the clothing.
“I’ve been like the balloon monitor,” said a Calvin Klein salesman, who was discussing the fun

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The golf tracker is feature-loaded but still small enough to carry onto the course.

There’s a surprise inside that chocolate sphere.