Fashion Month Has Been a Lot So Far. Here Are the Parts We Actually Want to Talk About.

From a long drive to see Luar at the Unisphere to the homecoming of McQueen and a deeply necessary perfume pilgrimage, the best moments of this September’s first two fashion weeks are forever forged in our memories.

To the uninitiated, Fashion Month is technically about clothes and glamour, but anyone who has ever spent four consecutive weeks surviving showrooms, traffic, standing-room-only presentations and parties that begin at 10 p.m. knows this is a fairly generous interpretation of the assignment. In New York and London this September, the clothes were only the beginning. There were runway fantasies, downtown cameos, heritage brands having identity crises, celebrities materializing like Pokémon and enough nightlife to make “just one drink” the season’s most obvious lie.

Here are our favorite moments that made us stop, stare, screenshot, text the group chat and — occasionally — consider making an addition to our wardrobe.

New York

Luar

Raúl López is an absolute beacon of light for the fashion community. Luar continues to understand something many brands spend millions trying to manufacture: a fashion show should feel like a world, not a PowerPoint presentation with better lighting. His latest collection carried the designer’s familiar collision of polish, downtown attitude and Dominican identity. Despite a two-hour, traffic-laden drive to Queens and hopping a security rail to see the show on time, it was one of the highlights of New York Fashion Week.

7 For All Mankind

As PAPER’s Fashion Director Angelina Cantu put it to me: “Hot. Sexy. Fabulous. I love a girl who can pump it. Thank God for Nicola Brognano.” The collection was one of the best of New York Fashion Week, but can we talk about the show’s styling? People globally are going to be recreating those looks all year. Bravo, Brognano.

Coach

Coach turned 85 and looks damn good for its age. Stuart Vevers marked the anniversary with a collection steeped in New York nostalgia before sending everyone directly into a Studio 54-style birthday blowout, where Elle Fanning, Storm Reid and the rest of the fashion-industrial glitterati did what people at a Coach party are supposed to do: look expensive and stay out late. Eighty-five has never looked better.

ESSENCE Fashion House

The ESSENCE Fashion House understood the assignment and then threw the assignment into a nightclub for one of the best parties of New York Fashion Week. At Jean’s, Daniel Kaluuya, Coi Leray, Nasir Dean, Leon Thomas and Claressa Shields were among the names in the room, while Va$htie Kola handled the decks and Flo Milli came through the dance floor for the performance of the night. We need more of this type of unpretentious fun during Fashion Week.

Rio

Rio Uribe brought fresh energy to a schedule already bursting with personalities. He is one of the best yet most underrated designers in the industry, and his show reinforced that. This particular collection reaffirmed Rio’s commitment to showcasing Latino culture (particularly Mexican culture) through fashion in a meaningful way. It felt elevated and special. It was personally gratifying to see Fuerza Regida’s JOP in the front row and Snow Tha Product absolutely slay walking the show because JOP, Snow and Rio met earlier this year at a small PAPER Español dinner party meant to bring creators in the Latino community together. Mission accomplished. Salud, Rio.

Zaldy

Zaldy’s official CFDA calendar debut arrived with precisely the amount of drama one might expect from a designer whose career has existed at the intersection of fashion, performance and pop spectacle. The collection leaned into that theatricality, treating the runway as something closer to a stage than a showroom. It was just all-around fun. Even Zaldy’s energy was relaxed, happy and exuding joy (not the typical energy of a designer during Fashion Week). The event was supported by Auger founders Dave and Leigh Anne Clark, who created an incubator to support creatives. God bless!

Zane Li

Designer Zane Li just won the Karl Lagerfeld Award from the LVMH Prize in Paris. His collection has a strong point of view that combines bold graphic shapes, pops of color and sexy modernity. PAPER’s Editorial Director Mickey Boardman called Li’s one of his top favorites of the season. Li is very much one to watch — preferably before everyone else starts saying they knew him first.

Campillo

Campillo brought a distinctly Mexican sensibility into the New York conversation, grounding fashion in craft while refusing to make heritage feel precious or static. The label’s approach to tailoring, texture and artisanal detail gives traditional techniques a sharper, more contemporary charge — the kind of clothes that make you want to know where they came from and then immediately figure out where you can wear them. In a week saturated with American fashion mythology, Campillo offered a welcome reminder that the future of luxury is increasingly global, proudly specific and allergic to blandness.

Guvanch

Guvanch brought his particular blend of sensuality, glamour and slightly off-kilter fantasy to New York Fashion Week, making clothes that feel designed for people who consider “too much” a starting point rather than a warning. The collection played with body-conscious silhouettes, dramatic proportions and a sense of theatrical excess that felt right at home amid the city’s more unhinged Fashion Week moments.

Henry Zankov

As Editorial Director Mickey Boardman posited: “Henry Zankov had quite a week.” His Zankov show was full of his signature fun, colorful knits, and his debut for DVF was classic Diane von Furstenberg with a modern twist. He obviously gets the legend that is DVF, the brand and Diane the woman.

Tory Burch

Another of Mickey’s favorites for the week, he said of the brand, “Tory Burch is always chic and knows how rich ladies love to dress. This season the knits and boas were particularly glamorous and fun.” After days of maximalism and runway theater, there was something deeply satisfying about clothes that simply know how to behave — even if the people wearing them probably don’t.

KidSuper: The People’s Runway

Where do we even begin? Colm Dillane continues to blow our minds, turning fashion shows into community events and spectacles. The People’s Runway was exactly what its title promised: a little less velvet rope, a little more everybody come in.

Presented by Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, KidSuper transformed Borough Hall Plaza into an outdoor catwalk (and concert stage), showcasing five emerging Brooklyn-based designers — Kuai Li, Lamin Rey Jaiteh, Laurel Tiange Fang, Moses Aina and Roderick Reyes — who received both mentorship from industry insiders (like PAPER’s Angelia Cantu) as well as $15,000 in award money to support their careers.

If that was not enough, the audience (and anyone else in the general vicinity) was treated to performances by Wyclef Jean and the Songs of Solomon Choir. And then, the surprise of all surprises: Lauryn Hill took the stage to remind us all why she is the queen.

J Balvin

J Balvin always keeps busy, and New York Fashion Week was no different.

J Balvin and Kiton teamed up for “Kiton para J Balvin Familia,” bringing the Colombian superstar’s larger-than-life personal style together with Neapolitan tailoring. Double-breasted suits, tuxedos and leather pieces gave traditional luxury tailoring a dose of Balvin’s maximalist energy.

Then, Balvin lit up SoHo with some Colombian flair at a pop-up for the brand VÉLEZ. It was a particularly Balvin move: take something rooted in Medellín and put it directly into the middle of New York.

Montblanc

Montblanc celebrated its 100th anniversary in style at the Crane Club during New York Fashion Week. It was a chic night with a highly curated guest list including Paul Anthony Kelly, Alexandra Daddario and Princess Marie-Olympia of Greece, not to mention a set by legendary DJ Honey Dijon and, of course, the brand’s amazing creative director, Marco Tomasetta. The event was a perfect celebration of the brand’s centennial.

Rachel Antonoff x Susan Alexandra: Best in Show

Rachel Antonoff and Susan Alexandra teamed up for Best in Show, a NYFW extravaganza featuring clothes by Antonoff, accessories by Alexandra and celebrities accompanied by adoptable rescue dogs from Animal Haven. Antonoff’s clothes are cute and witty. Editorial Director Mickey Boardman particularly loved the trompe l’oeil cardigan on actor Bob Balaban.

The Martinez Brothers

The dynamic DJ duo the Martinez Brothers’ pop-up brought the city’s fashion and club cultures into the same room — which, historically, is where New York is at its most interesting. Their presence added some much-needed nocturnal electricity to a week already operating on caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, cameras and questionable sleep schedules.

London

Then: London. A different city, a different mood, approximately the same number of people pretending they are not exhausted.

Simone Rocha

Simone Rocha looked toward Caravaggio for a collection steeped in beauty, violence and the complicated messiness of love. Roses, rosettes, embroidered tulle and drop-waist silhouettes turned the runway into something resembling a painting. It was romantic in the Rocha sense of the word: beautiful, haunted and just threatening enough.

Ginny Litscher

It’s always a little bold to put a catwalk over a swimming pool because runway shows are fraught with oopsies. In the case of this show, the inevitable occurred when someone faceplanted into the pool — champagne glass, cellphone and all. Fortunately, it was not one of the models.

It makes sense why Litscher wanted to incorporate water into her show, though, because you could picture each garment being worn by someone laying out at some fabulous pool on vacation. Her work has a distinctly tactile, eccentric sensibility, with an emphasis on silhouette.

McQueen

McQueen returned to London Fashion Week for the first time since 2001, which is the fashion equivalent of returning to your childhood bedroom and discovering that the wallpaper is still somehow intact. Seán McGirr staged the Spring/Summer 2027 show in the Undercroft of Lincoln’s Inn Chapel, mixing Renaissance references, rave culture and Savile Row tailoring. Huntsman tailoring and McQueen’s archival DNA collided with the raw energy of London nightlife.

Critics feel some type of way about the collection, but that is because Lee McQueen was such a revolutionary that the bar and expectations for the house are unattainable. If this collection had been presented by virtually any other fashion house, it likely would have been met with praise. It took the re-see for me and PAPER’s Fashion Director Angelina Cantu to really appreciate the collection, particularly the quality of the tailoring and craftsmanship.

Burberry

Burberry closed London Fashion Week with Daniel Lee bringing textile legend Celia Birtwell into the fold. Her hand-drawn florals, vines and playful motifs met the house’s familiar check, softening and scrambling Burberry’s heritage codes in equal measure. One of the most talked-about moments was Central Cee’s runway walk, which has by now gone viral.

Liberty London

Obviously, no London Fashion Week pilgrimage is complete without a tactical detour to Liberty London. The fragrance department is particularly dangerous: one minute you are casually browsing, and the next you have sampled enough niche perfume to develop a completely new personality. Consider it an olfactory palate cleanser after a week of backstage hairspray and whatever mysterious scent was haunting the front row.

The PAPER Party

And, of course, our best-of-Fashion-Week roundup would not be complete without the obligatory reminder that PAPER throws the best parties, and this year’s Fashion Week party we threw with Lexus and Ambush might have been our best ever. (Bias acknowledged.)

From a stacked lineup of DJ sets from Huddy, Rei Ami, DJ Pee.Wee and Ty Dolla $ign to a room full of the coolest kids around, like Bad Gyal, JOP, Sebastian Yatra, Alton Mason, Joan Smalls, JoJo, Coi Leray, Saweetie, Sofi Tukker, Snow Tha Product, N3on and more, the party was what a Fashion Week party is meant to be.