The Best Of New York Fashion Week, From Tory Burch To Thom Browne

See all the best looks from the Fall/Winter 2025 fashion shows, including Tory Burch, Calvin Klein and more

Backstage at the Tory Burch Fall/Winter 2025 show at New York Fashion Week

Between Veronica Leoni’s debut at Calvin Klein and the return of designers like Norma Kamali and Christopher John Rogers, New York Fashion Week gave the fashion crowd a lot to look at—and talk about.

The week started, unofficially, with Marc Jacobs’s Spring/Summer 2025 presentation, where he again turned models into dolls with playful dresses and coats with blown-up proportions. Then, on February 6, the Fall/Winter 2025 season really began. Christopher John Rogers showcased his first NYFW show after five years, and it was clear that his sense of colour had lost none of its vitality. This time, Rogers’s rainbow was presented through striped shirts and dresses, with plenty of ruffles to add to the collection’s buoyant mood.

The next day, Leoni made her long-awaited debut as the creative director of Calvin Klein—with Klein himself in attendance. Leoni played it safe with a collection to satisfy modern minimalists, featuring sharp suiting and blanket coats. There were buzzy runway moments though: a bespectacled Kendall Jenner walked, while the cult-favourite CK One perfume bottle was presented as a bag.

More interpretations of the working woman’s wardrobe could be seen at Khaite, Altuzarra and Fforme, where newly-appointed creative director Frances Howie made a striking first impression with crinkled silk dresses, coats adorned with frayed ruffles, and fringed necklaces and earrings. Fringe also figured into the bags and coats at Joseph Altuzarra’s show, whose textural experimentations also resulted in furry jackets and tweed bubble skirts. At Khaite, meanwhile, Catherine Holstein focused on black leather and leopard ponyhair, creating a line-up of biker jackets, blazers and pencil skirts with a dark edge.

It was Ashlynn Park who presented a minimalist collection that looked different and fresh: some models wore peplum jackets and tank tops over flowing trousers, while others were cocooned in coats with gently curved lapels and rounded sleeves. Their ensembles came in a soothing palette of beige, black, and surprisingly, persimmon orange—a nod to the fruit that inspired Ashlyn’s collection.

Other New York designers reinterpreted the American classics. Tory Burch served up what she called “twisted American sportswear”: rugby shirts and sweatpants cut from brushed Japanese jersey, zip pullovers in needle-punched wool made to look like fleece, and jersey dresses that are draped, pleated, and fitted with shoulder pads. The standout—and strangest—pieces were the slashed cardigans, whose sleeves were twisted and pinned at the shoulder.

Throughout the collection, Burch used materials that were made to look worn, suggesting the idea of clothes that have been loved and treasured. That same idea inspired Coach creative director Stuart Vevers, who showed shrunken graphic tees and sweatshirts, oversized jeans, and knitwear with leather patches—grungy staples for Gen Zers. Meanwhile, Michael Kors wanted to appeal to a grown-up audience, telling WWD, “It is just insane to think that everyone’s 26 years old. We have fabulous-looking customers in their 70s and some in their 80s.” It would take an assured older customer to pull off Kors’s vision of “dégagé chic”, which included cosy shearling coats, menswear-inspired tailoring with power shoulders, and quietly glamorous sequin dresses.

Kors’s monochromatic ensembles used an autumnal palette of aubergine, gray, and deep browns. Donna Karan, whose collection was presented through a lookbook, also opted for tonal dressing, mostly in a “chocolate plum” hue that appeared across velvet suits and evening dresses. The shade and the silhouettes were pulled from the designer’s archives, proving the timelessness of the Donna Karan DNA. Anna Sui stayed true to herself, too, creating an ornate wardrobe for a “madcap heiress” that was full of fabulous looks in hammered satin, leopard print, tweeds and faux fur. Equally playful is Sandy Liang’s ode to girlhood, which bore nostalgic touches like origami stars, doll-sized clothing, and branding inspired by the Toys “R” Us logo.

Thom Browne closed NYFW on a high note—which was especially necessary, given all the industry talk of NYFW’s waning relevance. His signature gray suiting was reimagined with embroidered bird motifs—a symbol of freedom—and relaxed, looser silhouettes. Browne also offered a dose of fantasy, seen in the closing look of a voluminous tweed gingham ballgown, worn with a gold bullion embroidered jacket.

Ahead of London Fashion Week, which is only kicking off on 20 February, view the best looks from the New York Fall/Winter 2025 runway shows below.