As fashion waits to see what the winds of creative change bring across the Atlantic, the breeze is already blowing in New York.
At New York Fashion Week this season, three brands put new designers in the driver’s seat, following the departure of their founding designers. Diotima designer Rachel Scott is succeeding Proenza Schouler’s Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, who are now heading up LVMH-owned Loewe; buzzy upstart Area, founded by Parsons students Beckett Fogg and Piotrek Panszczyk in 2014, reintroduced itself under Balenciaga Couture and Tom Ford alumnus Nicholas Aburn; while Phillip Lim co-founder and the brand’s chief executive Wen Zhou just announced a new head of design, Michelle Rhee, last week.
It’s a level of change that is somewhat unprecedented in New York. The city’s biggest brands are still mostly led by their namesake founders, including Tory Burch, Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors, Marc Jacobs and Tommy Hilfiger. Often, when a designer departs their own smaller, independent brand, it is put on pause or shutters.
These labels — while wholly different projects—have each built up substantial awareness and distribution. Fogg describes Area’s situation as “a re-emergence, with a good head start.”
Navigating change at the top brings a challenge, particularly in the midst of a luxury crisis that has forced many to rework their business models in an attempt to ignite growth. At a newer label, there are fewer developed codes than at a historic house such as Chanel, Saint Laurent, Dior or even Jean Paul Gaultier, meaning a new designer is charged with taking a brand forward while its legacy is still being defined.
Proenza Schouler put the moment poetically in its show notes for Scott’s first collection, designed in collaboration with the studio and meant to serve as an amuse bouche for her debut in February: “A cut, a twist a release: these are all first gestures suspended between what endures and what evolves. … The story will be written over time.”
The Creative Challenge
As fashion’s creative renewal begins, designers are walking the line between what works and what’s next.
Area has a new designer, but it’s going back to its very New York roots, originally inspired by the 1980s nightclub of the same name, a hotspot for creatives such as Grace Jones and Andy Warhol, said Fogg, Area’s chief executive. Over the past decade, the brand developed a reputation for eye-popping garments made of googly eyes, bananas and protruding spikes that brought a couture-inspired edge to New York Fashion Week and made it a favourite of celebrities like Taylor Swift, who wears an Area look on the cover of her upcoming album “The Life of a Showgirl.” Though it has a commercial hit in its jeans covered in cutouts and crystals, it was missing a wider mix of everyday items.
Developing that assortment was part of Aburn’s edict for his first collection, but also to do so with Area’s established clientele in mind. The “daytime” pieces he layered into the offer were united around “that feeling of getting dressed at night, the anticipation and sense of danger … when you’re just going to work,” he said.
At the brand’s runway show on Friday, more commercial items that pushed the brand forward, like fitted and flared cargo pants, were paired with those that felt more like the “old Area” in order to bridge the gap for longtime customers.
“If she saw this at another brand, she might not think it’s for her, but if we show it to her with this [sparkly, rhinestone roped top], she’ll understand,” he said. “It’s my job to make it clear how they’re linked.”
Aburn still sent plenty of statement pieces down the runway: dramatic, suspended and sculptural dresses inspired by confetti, pant-legs twisted into mini jean skirts and a denim and satin evening gown.
At Proenza Schouler, styled as a “prelude” to Scott’s full arrival next season, signatures from both were present: Modern tailoring and emphasis on silhouette (Proenza) were imbued with texture, cutouts, layering and raw edges (Scott).
When Rhee — to whom Zhou was attracted because of her range of experience at brands from Marc Jacobs to Club Monaco — first joined Phillip Lim, the two spent days in the archive dissecting what makes a Phillip Lim garment, said Zhou. Rhee is bringing several elements from its past to her vision for the brand, including a revamped version of its “Luna” handbag and trendy-again Y2K designs like sleek slip dresses featuring metal and lace detail, a snakeskin shirt-dress and slouchy denim.
“A brand doesn’t just survive 20 years in fashion unless it fulfils a cultural, emotional and practical need,” said Zhou.
Building Momentum
Though fashion moves fast, lasting success stories are built more slowly — especially in today’s more tempered environment.
“Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and Michael Kors started small and it took them time to grow,” said Julie Gilhart, consultant and former head of fashion for Barneys. “You have these established, small and mid-sized brands, it’s time to set them up for more growth.”
A new designer can be something of a “shot in the arm,” as Gilhart put it, layering freshness on top of the operational and creative work of the past.
Proenza Schouler is in the midst of a years-long turnaround. After early success and fast growth fuelled by outside investment, McCollough and Hernandez, who remain shareholders and sit on the company’s board, regained control of the brand in 2018. New chief executive Shira Suveyke Snyder, formerly president of e-tailer Shopbop, joined in October 2024, with the goal of accelerating growth via direct-to-consumer channels.
In 2024 Phillip Lim inked new China expansion plans, forming a joint venture with China-based brand operator Toncan Group that will see investment in brand building and retail expansion. Last year, Area, which is “on the cusp of profitability,” according to Fogg, hired brand president Alison Bergan who previously led footwear brands like Aerosoles and P448, last year, with an eye to maturation. The brand is looking to close a Series A round of funding and open its first store in 2026.
The stakes are even higher considering the wider environment in fashion, with new pressures like tariffs squeezing brands and consumers alike. But it also means a renewed opportunity in sharply designed goods at a better price point. Most of Proenza Schouler’s handbags and dresses sit between $900 and $3,000, priced well below top luxury labels; while Phillip Lim is positioned solidly in the contemporary category, with dresses peaking around $1,000. Area wants to bring down its own costs by 25 percent, “making everything more accessible and opening up the customer base,” said Fogg, charging around $795 for a bodycon dress from its resort capsule, and $250 to $425 for its crystal-covered tanks, sweaters and tees.
“Designer brands are no longer attainable and accessible brands have traded out in quality and design,” said Zhou. “The market again is wide open.”