New York Fashion Week: Designer Brands Everyone Should Know

New York Fashion Week is one of the four major fashion weeks in the world, and it is a semi-annual event. The other three major fashion weeks take place in Paris, Milan, and London. The concept of fashion week began in Paris when women would be hired to show off fashion items by wearing them in public places. In the present day and age, the event features talented models walking the runway in exclusive designer clothing. Womenswear and menswear are predominately the two kinds of shows. Womenswear shows are held in February to showcase autumn/winter collections and in September and October to showcase spring/ summer collections. Menswear fashion weeks are held in January to showcase autumn/winter collections and in June and July to showcase spring/summer collections.

This February 2017, Frostburg freshman Maleeka McCutcheon will be walking the runway in extravagant avant-garde couture pieces at New York Fashion Week. Modeling for New York Fashion Week is nothing new for McCutcheon, as she has also modeled clothes for the event in 2016. Additional information regarding McCutcheon’s modeling story can be found at http://www.frostburg.edu/sci/about-us/in-the-news/mccutcheon/.

Brands featured at New York Fashion Week include avant-garde couture, Alexander Wang, and Christian Dior, which may be familiar to model McCutcheon, but unheard of to the average JCPennys or Sears shopper. So here is a few of the more familiar clothing brands featured in New York Fashion Week’s 2017 spring/summer clothing collection.

Ralph Lauren

The Ralph Lauren brand was founded by American designer Ralph Lauren, who started his line in 1967 with men’s ties. In 1972, Lauren launched his first full women’s collection. Since then, the brand has spread to a wide variety of clothing items and fragrances. Today, the designer creates seasonal collections each year. The most recent collection is Lauren’s 2017 spring/summer collection. The collection is sophisticated, modern, and it offers playfulness in its use of embellishment, color, pattern, and silhouette. The western style belt shows attention to detail and is a timeless signature of Ralph Lauren. Ralph Lauren’s collection is elegant and effortless in an unimagined western-style way.

Tommy Hilfiger

The Tommy Hilfiger brand was founded by American designer Thomas Jacob aka Tommy Hilfiger in 1985. Hilfiger soon began designing preppy sportswear clothing which influenced R&B icons such as Aaliyah. In Hilfiger’s 2017 spring/summer collection the designers 90’s sportswear look was given an updated appeal. The collection includes logo dresses and lots of denim.

DKNY

DKNY was founded in 1989 by Donna Karan. The clothing brand was inspired by her daughter, Gabby. Karan also had her Donna Karen Collection before DKNY, but decided to have DKNY be a younger, more affordable diffusion line in stores alongside her Donna Karan Collection. Other brands have branched off the original DKNY label such as DKNY Jeans and DKNY Active. For DKNY’s spring collection designers, Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne created a sport-tech fashion look using suit jackets, oversized sweats, mesh bike shorts, and logo bra tops.