The glitz, glamor, and models have once again flooded the Big Apple for this year’s fashion week. 

Held biannually, New York Fashion Week is one of the biggest opportunities for designers to present their new collections to critics, buyers, and the broader public. Over the course of five days, guests viewed designers’ Spring-Summer collections, attended raucous after-parties, and showed off their own eccentric street styles. Yet amidst the chaos of Fashion Week, three particular collections stood out among the bunch, sending powerful messages to the brand’s audiences. 

Chromat

Creative Director Becca McCharen-Tran has always brought a little extra color to the runways with her eccentric designs. But this season was especially bright, as the models donned neon reds, oranges and blues. McCharen-Tran stayed true to her genuine style. Her shows have always featured the minorities of the fashion industry: models who are not the same size, color, age and gender of every other so-called “perfect” high-fashion model. McCharen-Tran’s show appropriately displayed the individual personalities of her models and designs.

The Chromat runway was bombarded with neon brights, zippers, bungee cords, pool noodles and even snack wrappers. The scuba-style collection was made for women who spend their vacations doing water sports. Strategically placed Cheetos bags and aluminum cans on clothes gave the show a relaxed, casual feel. Chromat hit two big trends this season: cargo-style pants and activism.

Victor de Souza

At his New York Fashion Week show, Victor de Souza proved that fashion is not a set of decisions, but a “quest for what everyone’s not doing.” 

Hooded coats screamed “Little Red Riding Hood,” and knee socks met librarian-style glasses and metallic flats in both blue and red iterations of sack-back dresses — combining the mixture of traits that defined the French New Wave with those from previous periods. 

Son Jung Wan

Designer Son Jung Wan’s namesake brand — among the leading fashion ventures in South Korea — took center stage at Spring Studios, a coveted venue for any designer, at this year’s New York Fashion Week. Son’s newest collection celebrates a minimalistic and modest viewpoint of ‘90s edginess, which creates a space for futuristic elements to change the way ‘90s fashion is looked at.

The beginning of the show embodied this sentiment as the audience began watching models walk down with padded dresses, faux fur pink sleeves, gold sequin shorts and Madonna’s voice echoing through the speaker. All the light New York City had to offer flooded into the studio, and the gallery was cast in a deep orange glow.

Though their colors were bold, the pieces were not overdone. There was something modest in the combination of jarring color and slim cuts paired with a variation of black-and-white pump boots — the designs’ unifying element. 

One can find a universal language in Son Jung Wan, in black-and-white pump boots or in Madonna songs, if nothing else. The audience’s grins at the end of the show said everything that needed to be said.