Next stop: Santa Fe. Stuart Vevers may only have spent 24 hours in the New Mexican capital last summer, but the experience made a big impact.
The impressive Turquoise Trail, the stunning desert landscape, the strong Western influences mixed with the punk-rock vibe of local popular dive bar The Matador — it all merged in the young and free-spirited Coach spring women’s and men’s collection, which was injected with a contemporary interpretation of an Eighties’ New Romantic vibe. This was highlighted by the postapocalyptic set, dominated by an oxidized giant metallic sculpture of a dinosaur.
Inspired by the hues of the desert landscape, Vevers offered a light and soft take on the season — a dramatic juxtaposition to the dark side that defined the fall collection. “This is a counterpoint to fall,” he said. “There are faded colors, nostalgic prairie prints — it’s very heirloom-y.”
Maxidresses with asymmetric hems were embellished with flamboyant ruffles. They were paired with chunky sweaters that had an artisanal feel; leather fringed jackets punctuated with patches, and washed napa vests with a charming lived-in effect. Artsy patchwork defined the denim pieces, which had an intentionally imperfect touch, while an elevated version of an outdoor fleece jacket was rendered

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Although Japanese designer Kozaburo Akasaka already presented his men’s spring collection in July, he wanted to put on an event that brought the clothes to life. Akasaka is only two seasons in, but he’s already racked up some impressive credentials, having attended Central Saint Martins before receiving his master of fine arts from The New School’s Parsons School of Design, which is where Dover Street Market purchased his graduate collection. He then spent two years working for Thom Browne and made the LVMH Prize shortlist in fall 2017 and won the special prize in 2018.
Now he’s presenting his first spring collection, which he described as “transcendent.” The feeling he had while designing the collection is the same feeling he has while listening to Föllakzoid, a Chilean psychedelic rock band that performed a 20-minute set as his friends, men and women who were dressed in his fall and spring collections, watched from the audience.
The spring line builds on the Western references and tailoring established in his first collection, but merges them with unexpected details like kimono sleeves, Japanese indigo dyes and madras. He worked with hemp and loose weave cotton to construct oversized blazers and high-waisted, cropped trousers that had a

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Vasilis Loizides was thinking of his homeland of Cyprus for his spring collection, his third to date. He used the Mediterranean island to inform his work in quite literal ways.
“I used a lot of pre-historic figurines that symbolize the passing of time,” the designer said during a presentation. They showed up on dresses and as an embroidery on a white satin long-sleeve top.
The poppy flower, which symbolizes eternal sleep in Cyprus, was a recurring motif, with bronze copper flowers splashed on the front of white pants and dotted on a low-cut white tank bodysuit. Bronze metallic fabric appeared throughout the line, done best in a fitted pant with a sheer panel down the leg that had a sexy cowboy feeling.
“My collections are a constant dialogue about gender dynamics and queer visibility,” he noted; he cast models in a mix of races and gender expressions for his presentation.
The collection was presented in a downtown art gallery, and his work definitely had a bit of an art school vibe, yet he clearly has room to grow.

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“I’ve been obsessed with tailoring since I was young, because every morning my father, a businessman, wore suits. He said to me, ‘Clothing represents a person’s personality so it’s important to express [that],” explained Seoul-born, New York-based designer Moon Choi, whose namesake label launched a year ago. Choi’s core methodology and strength lies in tailoring, but spring proved her capabilities in fluidity as well. 
Her designs blurred the line between the feminine and masculine. Gorgeous coats with long sash belts pulled through grommets, suiting with raised belts and silky waist-wrapped shirts were worn by both male and female models, a reflection of her belief that clothing is not defined by gender. Choi’s newest silhouette, a flowing, long-sleeve lilac silk dress with a high slit made for the strongest look. The palette was mostly earthy and neutral, fitting her museum-like presentation, where models, podiums of random sculptures and blown-up paintings of belt buckles and buttons were roped off for observation, like specimens on display.

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American fashion is experiencing a period of reckoning, particularly the many brands born in the heady fashion swirl of the late Nineties and through the Aughts. Among the most prominent: Proenza Schouler, the design duo of Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, who are now no longer glamour start-up kids but established designers in survival-growth mode.
A year ago, McCollough and Hernandez decamped from New York to show in Paris, which heightened their ongoing interest in artisanal craft. Their spring homecoming marked a sharp shift in that mind-set. The collection they showed on Monday was something of a shocker, an exploration of silhouette and surface texture in three basic materials: denim, cotton shirting and a touch of leather.
“Coming back to New York for us, it’s like, what is American fashion? What feels relevant now? What do our friends want to wear, and what feels real?” Hernandez said during a preview.
Offered McCollough, “We wanted to maybe move away from something that feels a little more special occasion and go into something that feels a little more everyday.”
Translation: Embroideries and feathers are swell, but these guys want to sell. Inspired by the response to their lower-priced PSWL line — their friends want to wear it —

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Chappy has a new brand identity.
The social connection app that targets gay men has spent the past six months creating a new management team and pushing a user experience that connects with its mission, which is to provide a safe and fulfilling platform to connect gay men across various facets of their lives.
They are now backed by new strategic and brand advisory from Bumble, which invested in the app in 2016, including founder and chief executive officer Whitney Wolfe Herd and Andrey Andreev, the technologist behind Badoo and Bumble.
“Much like Bumble, Chappy is committed to providing its users with a safe, welcoming and empowered experience and that sets it apart from any other app in the gay dating space. Chappy has been dedicated to investing in their users from day one, and with the current advancements in leadership, brand and platform, Chappy can now achieve the potential we all know it’s more than capable of realizing,” said Wolfe Herd.
New to the management team is Sam Dumas, who spent the past four years working in marketing at Condé Nast. He will serve as head of brand and was given cofounder status. Dumas will work with Max Cheremkhin, Chappy’s cofounder, to grow

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Out on her own for the first time, Emily Burnett has lined up some well-placed investors for the new Burnett New York ready-to-wear, cocktail dresses and eveningwear line.
In June, Burnett exited Dennis Basso after a 10-year run. She inadvertently met her future cofounder and co-chief executive officer Sterling McDavid at the designer’s company. Pre-fall will be the first collection for the new label.
McDavid said she visited 20 couture houses in search of a wedding gown, before deciding on Dennis Basso, where Burnett was working at the time. “My experience at Dennis Basso with Emily, Dennis and the whole team was so positive, uplifting and I felt that I was part of this design process,” she said.
McDavid’s understanding of fashion started with her great-grandmother, who was a seamstress. Her mother had a keen interest in fashion and took McDavid to her first fashion show around the age of 10. Over the years, McDavid got to know numerous designers through her network, as well as her mother’s, but she said Burnett stood out. So much so that McDavid asked the designer how was it that she was not working independently. Like many designers, the idea of starting a signature company was something

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BRANDOLINI’S BLAZERS: Georgina Brandolini d’Adda is relying on her fashion experience to design a capsule collection with Blazé Milano, which will be unveiled during Milan Fashion Week on Sept. 21.
The Italian luxury brand Blazé is designed by former fashion editors Corrada Rodriguez D’Acri, Delfina Pinardi and Maria Sole Torlonia and hinges on their passion for blazers, but Brandolini d’Adda has added four pants to the capsule of 10 jackets she has conceived.
A longtime muse and collaborator of couturier Valentino Garavani and a former general manager and shareholder of Balmain, she is the niece of the late Fiat chief Gianni Agnelli, mother to Coco and Bianca Brandolini d’Adda and a fixture of the Paris social set.
“I really love Blazé Milano. I think that Corrada, Delfina and Maria Sole perfectly know how to combine a classic style with a modern twist in a very focused offering of jackets, which have an incredible fit,” said Brandolini d’Adda. She said she included pants “to offer women impeccable evening outfits to stay chic and comfortable at the same.”
Brandolini d’Adda designed for Blazé a capsule of unfussy silhouettes with sophisticated details such as a customized powder pink and sage green lining or polished cover buttons. Examples

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FIDENZA, Italy – Italian contemporary brand Pinko — and its parent company Cris Conf SpA — are committed to elevate their social corporate responsibility policy.
Pinko’s chief executive officer Pietro Negra unveiled on Monday at the firm’s headquarters here a new project called Pinko Take Care aimed at providing employees with free-of-charge medical services.
The Take Care initiative includes annual blood screenings and medical examinations (for cardiovascular, urological and oncological diseases offered to employees on-site) and is carried out through a partnership with Italian digital startup Medical Box, allowing patients to book their examinations online, and with Fora, the country’s leading company for mobile diagnosis systems.
“We invested around 350,000 euros for one year of running this project in Italy alone, as we believe institutions are often lacking in answering to citizens’ needs. Private companies should try to offer their support,” said Negra, noting that the project was first tested in June at the company’s headquarters in Fidenza and registered a 90 percent compliance rate.
Negra expressed his commitment to extend Take Care to all the company’s employees worldwide and said he is already “working on this…although such a project challenges us on many levels.” The firm currently employs around 1,200 people, half of

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PRADA STRIKES BACK: A few days after animal rights supporters targeted the Prada Group in an international campaign, the company has responded by highlighting its “gradual and concrete reduction” of fur products and played up its use of man-made fibers such as nylon.
Trying to turn up the pressure on Prada to adopt a fur-free policy, animal protection activists banded together last week. Spearheaded by the Fur Free Alliance, a group of 40 animal-protection organizations from 30-plus countries, the initiative calls on supporters to use social media, phone calls and e-mails to reach out to Prada asking the company to stop using fur in its collections. With additional outreach help through Care2, their efforts started in Japan on Sept. 6.
In a statement released by Prada on Tuesday, it was noted how some animal-rights associations have been sending thousands of e-mails to the company, including the personal e-mail accounts of some of its employees, demanding that the production of furs be stopped. “We believe it is important to stress that all the advertising campaigns of the group’s brands, together with the fashion shows and displays in the shop windows, have not been presenting these products for some time, in order to discourage demand

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