nyfw spring 2020

The Five Most Entertaining Moments of Fashion Week So Far

Photo: Getty Images/Shutterstock

Here at the Cut, we have authoritative, uncompromising Fashion Week criticism from Cathy Horyn. We have party reports, scene reports, and street-style reports. But sometimes a Fashion Week moment occurs that thrills and delights us but doesn’t quite require its own space. Below, five members of our fashion team describe the moment that struck them as the funniest, most charming, or most memorable from Fashion Week thus far.

The Energy of This Girl at Brandon Maxwell

In fashion, there’s nothing less cool than being really, really excited about something, which is why I was both agog at and deeply inspired by this woman in the audience at Brandon Maxwell on Saturday night, who danced to Clare Dunn’s country song “Tuxedo” as if no one were watching. (I was.)

Earlier in the night, Maxwell placated guests with Shake Shack and pink sippy cups full of booze, so when the models hit the runway, it was an instant good time. He also introduced menswear, and, let me tell you, this girl brought the level of energy for those male models that I want to bring into cuffing season this fall. Later I found out her name is Jaime, and she went to college with Maxwell in Austin. She was “so proud” and responding to the positivity and Southern charm that Maxwell brings to his shows every season. “That’s the Texan in me,” she said over DM. “That’s how I would express myself at a Friday-night football game.” Emilia Petrarca, Fashion News Writer

The Farmers Market at Collina Strada

Talking about sustainability at a fashion show is a delicate dance — it’s easy to accidentally come across as disingenuous or moralizing. I thought Collina Strada did it well. The main show featured Zsela Thompson singing songs “for a dying planet.” It was a beautiful but heavy backdrop to models walking in brightly colored clothes. (One was wearing a thong bodysuit and had “Pick up your shit” written on her bare bottom.) The final model was chef DeVonn Francis. When he came out, the music changed and he started dancing — like, reaaaaally dancing. After the show ended, guests were invited to take home the produce and bread that served as the backdrop for the show. Fun, delicious, and just serious enough. Sarah Spellings, Fashion Writer

The Eggs at Puppets and Puppets

Photo: Matthew Schneier

Fashion is under no obligation to be reasonable. There is, in fact, a potent strain of it that careens the opposite way. Maybe even the name Puppets and Puppets suggests which camp a brand falls into. Carly Mark and Ayla Argentina staged their show this weekend in the spooky ballroom of the Prince George Hotel on 27th Street, which has a kind of faded, gilded hauteur. Where else to show their second season, which focused on “the intersection between czar vestments and archetypal American capitalist uniform”? But that makes it sound drier than it was. As solemn as the procession was — really, it did have a kind of manic dignity — it was wonderfully surreal: the pillbox hats, the outrageously rounded bustles, something called the “beaded napkin moment.” And throughout, there were eggs: egg earrings, broken yolky eggs threatening to overspill their cups on shoes, and, my favorite, slippers attached to egg cartons like platforms. Walking on eggshells! That’s a balancing act, and by leaning with gusto into the weirdness, they pulled it off. It scrambled my brain. Matthew Schneier, Features Writer

The Casting at Deveaux

The brand’s early show on a Sunday morning was the wake-up call I didn’t know I needed: a band performing Janet Jackson’s “Love Will Never Do (Without You),” a drumline, and a lineup of multigenerational women wearing minimal silhouettes in lustrous fabrics. I swear I could see them physically exuding joy. The mix of street-cast faces, models, and friends (some of whom had been participating in a dance class called “Moves”) came together to create a display of real women looking real good in real clothes. Fashion editor Brie Welch’s relaxed white suit caused an Instagram DM frenzy, but for me, the best part was Coco Mitchell dancing her way down the catwalk in an elegant navy caftan. It was glorious. Rebecca Ramsey, Fashion Director

The Blatant Branding Exercise That Was the Cheetos Runway Show

Photo: Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images for Frito-Lay

If all fashion shows are an exercise in branding, why pretend otherwise? That was the approach Cheetos took with a runway show on Thursday night that registered as a zero on the subtlety scale. Heavy on the orange, it featured Cheetos jumpsuits, baby backpacks, and, as the finale, a Warholian printed dress with sewn-in cheese puffs. If you’re wondering why this existed, you clearly weren’t the target audience: It was really for the true fans. While I was in the bathroom, I heard guests telling each other how they got invited: “Well, I work at Us Weekly”; “Oh, I commented, like, 50 times on the brand’s Instagram and finally, four hours ago, Chester [Cheetah] slid into my DMs and invited me.” Chester may have masterminded the exclusive guest list, but he didn’t appear at the show — possibly because he’s prepping for his new big movie, to be directed by Eva Longoria. You have to respect the hustle. Kathleen Hou, Beauty Director

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The Five Most Entertaining Moments of Fashion Week So Far