Model in Altuzarra at the Fall Winter 2025 fashion show.
It’s not a reality that the US fashion industry likes to face, but NYFW has lost its footing in importance on the global fashion stage. Because Paris has drawn foreign brands in droves like never before, where they are guaranteed an international audience of press and buyers, many of New York’s strong designer luxury brands have decamped for the French capital to show their wares. Designer Joseph Altuzarra even took his collection abroad to his hometown of Paris, where he lived with his Chinese-American mother and French-Basque father. Luckily for NYFW and his fans here, he returned to the Big Apple post-pandemic, giving the city a much-needed luxury boost.
He also made some recent changes to his business as he assumed the role of CEO of his brand and when he inked a deal with P180, a new venture dedicated to driving brand and retailer profitability founded by Brendan Hoffman with partner Christine Hunsicker, also CEO and founder of a proprietary B2B technology company CaaStle aimed at driving the evolution of inventory monetization for apparel and more. The venture is tasked with taking Altuzarra’s namesake label into the next phase.
Model in Altuzarra at the Fall Winter 2025 fashion show.
As for supplying the merch for his Fall Winter 2025 collection, the designer delivered it on this front. Altuzarra told the press backstage that he was picking up where he had left off this past fall collection.
“We continued from the Pierrot concept but went further. It has a little more David Lynch-ian slant to the collection; it’s more aggressive and rawer with equal parts vulnerability and defiance,” he said backstage post-show. The remix of “Blue Moon,” which was eerie and haunting and set to a techno beat, helped on the Blue Velvet director’s touch. Collection notes referred to it as “a woman who wears her history as armor unafraid to show her scars, sensuality, and romanticism endure but with a raw, defiant edge.”
The defiance was witnessed mainly through outerwear, something a city woman uses as protection against several combatants, meteorologically speaking and otherwise. Dramatic layered cape sash shawls, strong faux furs, shearling jackets, often paired with coordinating thigh-high boots, a leather full skirt and knit sweater covered in large, rounded metal studs, or the finale looks which featured allover crystal beading on a black overcoat and white halter dress, each with a modern version of 1950’s New Look hemline.
Model in Altuzarra at the Fall Winter 2025 fashion show.
Perhaps her softer side was evidenced through cozy yet contoured knits and billowing chiffon that appeared as ruffled collars, sleeve cuffs, and pant legs. The latter also had a sense of 1950s French gamine feel, such as a navy cable knit cropped sweater jacket and matching pencil skirts or a burgundy suit ensemble with a cropped jacket and an extreme peplum hem the designer said was created out of a knit embroidery technique. Cozy sweaters tucked in and belted, especially with peg-leg trousers or leather skirts, were also reminiscent of the era with a modern bent.
Sensuality was evidenced in a series of silk charmeuse styles gliding across the body and room (with a hint of 30’s evening attire) and the sheer voile dress styles that indeed pointed to a vulnerability given their transparency.
