Where Were the Stars At New York Fashion Week?
“If the best New York can produce is Julia Fox, we’re all in trouble.”
It was Louis Vuitton’s Spring 2006 show. Marc Jacobs was nearly ten years into his time as Creative Director of the storied house and told Vogue this about the collection: “You know — it really doesn't matter any more. The truth is, everything you want to wear is fine and great. Vive la différence!" Seated front row at the Petit Palais in the 8th arrondissement of Paris was an arsenal of those who matter: Catherine Deneuve, Janet Jackson, Uma Thurman, Sharon Stone, Eva Green and Winona Ryder. Were Azzedine Alaïa and Carla Sozzani there too? You bet they were. It was a who’s who of celebrities, designers and editors. A true industry event, but with cameras present.
Another notable assemblage of surely someone’s Roman Empire (mine?): Calvin Klein Fall 2010. Seated front-row, one next to the other, were Lee Pace, Jared Leto, Chase Crawford, Ryan Phillippe, Kellan Lutz, and Mehcad Brooks. An instant classic.
Or what about Zac Posen’s Spring 2004 show? Liza Minnelli, Diddy, Claire Danes, Lenny Kravitz and Stephanie Seymour? To quote Dorinda Medley: “Important.” I could simply cycle through the annals of front-row imagery from the shows of designers like Isaac Mizrahi, Donna Karan, Anna Sui and more to further highlight the omnipresence of celebrities in the front row of fashion shows. And though all the cities do it, New York has always had the advantage of a “cool” factor, or an unfussiness, that made it akin to a necessary stop on a good press tour, or simply a good venue for fresh snaps on the ole Getty Image website.
There’s a long history of the ever-evolving status symbol that is being seated front-row at New York Fashion Week. Though the clothes are the reason for the season, the celebs in attendance are often that which generate the interest outside the bubble of the industry.
If the VIP team is extra savvy, they can even make a moment out of who’s seated next to whom. White Lotus stars Will Sharpe and Murray Bartlett colliding universes at the Loewe Menswear Fall 2023 show? A stroke of genius. It’s why (and no shade, honestly) designers like Christian Siriano pad their front rows season after season. His team would likely say it builds out the world of the show. His detractors might say it shrewdly distracts from the clothes. Either way, headline: “Christian Siriano taps Ashlee Simpson, this 'Succession' star for NYFW show at The Plaza.”
But this season — we’re two-thirds of the way through as I type this — there seems to be a shift in who’s sitting front-row. Mind you, we still have Thom Browne and Michael Kors, two of our most consistent FROWers, but I think we’ve collected enough data to draw some type of conclusion. The A-listers seem to have largely sat out this season. “If the best New York can produce is Julia Fox, we’re all in trouble because bottom feeders in the front row do not do it for me,” declares my pal, industry titan James Scully.
Maybe the A-listers are gone for good. Maybe they’ve all fled to Paris. But why? And who’s come to replace them? To begin, we haven’t been entirely devoid of A-listers. Naomi Watts at Khaite, Matt Damon at Naeem Khan, Sofia Coppola at Anna Sui, Damson Idris at Tommy Hilfiger, Demi Moore at Carolina Herrera, Melanie Lynskey at Ulla Johnson and J. Smith Cameron at Christian Siriano. These, to be clear, are stars. But they were surprisingly anomalous this season. There’s nothing wrong with a FROW mainstay (see: queen Kelly Rutherford), but what really generates buzz, I find, is bringing out someone who’s not regularly paraded about. For example, I sat next to writer Zadie Smith at Joseph Altuzarra and overheard her telling Eva Chen that this was only her second fashion show after attending a Prada show a decade earlier. That’s pull!
My theory? There’s a lot going on. Between the aftershock of the strike, which has sent many actors back to set or into press cycles for projects that were unable to previously promote themselves, the award circuit chugging full steam ahead, the Met Gala on the horizon and rumors of a lack of stock for stylists to pull from, many A-listers and the teams that strategize around them might be thinking scarcity is the best tactic in an effort to reduce much-feared overexposure. That, or there’s simply not enough time/resources. And this isn’t even accounting for the Super Bowl, Rio de Janeiro Carnival and other events that draw out celebrity attendees — often for paid opportunities.
There’s also the very real fact that New York Fashion Week allows for a level of accessibility that some more introverted celebrities may seek to avoid. They’re typically without their handlers, at the mercy of flashbulbs and nagging asks from press (and those who believe themselves to be press) and forced to relinquish a degree of control that they can maintain on a red carpet or at a more scaled event.
But I think the real shift might be in prioritizing less the “cool” of New York in favor of the “chic” of Europe. “I would say in the last two years, everything has shifted to Milan and Paris — especially Paris,” explains Scully. “Even the young New York designers show there! And even if they don’t have shows, they set up showrooms there. New York has become a very secondary market for high fashion.” Why? Paris-based fashion powerhouses LVMH and Kering are paying top dollar for the right people (aka A-listers) to be seen and photographed front-row at their menagerie of shows and as a result, New York can get lost in the sauce. Most New York brands, especially the buzziest among them (Willy Chavarria, Zankov, Eckhaus Latta, etc.) don’t have the budgets that these luxury conglomerates do.
Do you need celebs at your show to generate attention? Rick Owens never plays the game of inviting A-listers and he’s still one of the most important designers in the world. Or look at Galliano’s latest collection for Maison Margiela? So much buzz, none of which was predicated on who was in attendance. But it can’t be denied that, especially for the general public, who attends your show can dictate as much about who the customer is as the clothes themselves.
Now, who has been sitting front-row? Here’s who I’ve had eyes on. Molly Ringwald seated next to Jeremy O. Harris at Helmut Lang? Gorgeous pairing. Jemima Kirke, Awkwafina and Kelly Bensimon at Eckhaus Latta? Reboot Three’s Company starring this trio. Delaney Rowe and Katie Holmes at Ulla Johnson! Aurora James and Huma Abedin at FFORME!! Eartheater and Kevin Aviance at Area!!! Cast them all on Season Three of The Traitors!
But the biggest FROW of the season (so far) didn’t take place during NYFW, but rather a week earlier when Marc Jacobs held his 40th anniversary show at the Park Avenue Armory. (Jacobs famously does not participate in the CFDA’s official fashion week calendar). He assembled Debby Harry, Chloë Sevigny, Hari Nef, Dakota Fanning, Sofia Coppola, Kathryn Newton and more at his show. Obviously would have killed to see other former muses like Winona Ryder and Lil’ Kim there, but this line-up proved that the right crowd will come out for the right designer. But in that instance, it’s likely a reverence for Jacobs that gets them there in lieu of a coin.
Can we reverse course and fashion a NYFW of yesteryear where Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman sit arm in arm at a show? According to Scully, New York will structurally never be the crème de la crème anymore. Why? “Europe has the money for the machine and nobody else does. That’s why London disappeared! If you don’t have the money to play in the machine, you have to try to engage in the media circus and get a TikToker there. That’s the new advertising. And look, if you’re a real actress, are you going to Prada or Tory Burch? I think you’re going to Prada.”
Well Beyonce just showed up at Luar so we finally have a bona fide STAR!