What went down at New York Fashion Week?

New York Fashion Week’s SS26 collections were deeply inspired to say the least. At Collina Strada, things got hairy. Hairstylist Mustafa Yanaz crafted “hair hats”, namely sculptural caps and beanies made from human and synthetic hair for the New-York-based brand’s collection, ‘Shade’, which drew directly on Jung’s idea of the shadow self (if you’re not familiar, that’s the unconscious and hidden aspects of our personalities that we suppress, according to the Swiss psychiatrist).

Elsewhere on the runway, Elon Musk’s estranged daughter, Vivian Wilson, walked for both Nepalese-American label Prabal Gurung and jewellery brand CHRISHABANA, while Emily Ratajkowski headlined for Tory Burch. Off-White creative director Ib Kamara went back to school for the brand’s catwalk, showcasing the collection on a rooftop basketball court at New York’s New Design High School. Meanwhile, Jamie Okuma, known for fusing couture techniques with Native artistry, made history as the first Indigenous designer featured on the official CFDA calendar.

Things got creative away from the runways, too. The Academy Mansion portrait studio became ‘The Dollhouse’, a surreal installation exploring warped domesticity. Down the street, Gwyneth Paltrow hosted an exclusive brunch to launch her new fashion line, Gwyn, as part of her company, Goop, while Sofia Coppola partnered with Chanel for the release of the Chanel Haute Couture book, in which Coppola, who interned at the maison’s studio in Paris as a teen, creates a visual history of Chanel’s Haute Couture designs. A full-circle moment if we ever saw one.