New York Fashion Week gave us plenty to talk about this season, but amid the packed schedules, celebrity-filled front rows and endless stream of looks hitting our feeds, a few collections stayed with us long after the runway cleared. From designers rethinking American sportswear to collections rooted in identity, heritage, fantasy and pure fashion fun, Spring 2027 felt strongest when the clothes had something to say without forgetting that we still want to look good wearing them. These are some of EBONY’s favorite collections from NYFW the shows that made us look twice, take notes and, in a few cases, start mentally planning next spring’s wardrobe.
Simkhai
Jonathan Simkhai started Spring/Summer 2027 with the order of the city and slowly let nature mess everything up. Inspired by tropical plants and the almost architectural shape of the pincushion flower, the collection began with controlled monochromatic tailoring before silhouettes loosened, hems became asymmetric and texture started taking over. Guipure lace, raffia, raw silk chiffon fringe and leather were manipulated alongside more technical experiments: organza mixed with PVC and optic fiber, rubberized florals and coated denim giving familiar materials a slightly alien quality. The best looks made that tension immediately legible: a glossy cobalt tank grounded by wildly fringed black trousers, an acidic yellow dress erupting into movement and sharp black tailoring interrupted by wrapped fabric at the waist. SIMKHAI has long played between hard and soft, but this season the clothes became more interesting when he allowed the two to collide rather than choosing a side.
Tibi
Amy Smilovic went looking for inspiration in Nashville and came back thinking about the people who never needed permission to dress like themselves. For Spring/Summer 2027, Tibi looked to what Smilovic calls the “comfortable contrarian,” taking cues from Dolly Parton, Lyle Lovett and other personalities whose style worked precisely because it belonged to them. Rather than turning those references into a Western costume, Tibi ran them through its own downtown vocabulary: relaxed track jackets met fluid skirts, fringe and beading brought movement to utilitarian separates, and a palette of navy, rust, black and chocolate brown made everything feel grounded. It was quintessential Tibi in the best way—clothes that are a little strange on the hanger, incredibly chic once styled, and designed for people who understand that personal style becomes much more interesting once you stop trying to explain it.
TWP
TWP may have a new home on Howard Street, but Trish Wescoat Pound isn’t abandoning the woman she has spent seasons getting to know. For Spring 2027, the designer continued building a wardrobe for women whose lives and moods can change before lunchtime, moving easily between utility, sensuality and a kind of polish that never looks too worked on. Technical jackets cinched at the waist were thrown over relaxed trousers, workwear shirting softened into fluid dresses and pared-back column gowns offered sex appeal without begging for attention. Oversized leather bags and utility belts gave the cleaner looks just enough attitude to keep things interesting. What felt especially good was the absence of a single fantasy woman at the center of it all. TWP understands she can be practical at 9 a.m., sexy by 7 p.m. and completely over everybody by 10, and she deserves a closet capable of keeping up.
Kallmeyer
For Spring 2027, Daniella Kallmeyer started with the humble act of wrapping and somehow made it feel incredibly chic. Inspired by Hideyuki Oka’s How to Wrap Five Eggs and the tactile work of Colombian artist Olga de Amaral, Kallmeyer treated fabric as something to fold, gather, bind and protect rather than simply cut into clothes. Trousers ballooned before tightening at the ankle, a sheer grid-like top looked almost pieced together by hand and an elongated gray knit set was left with raw, fringed edges that made its imperfection part of the appeal. Even a simple black tank gained new life through a sculptural swath of fabric wrapped around the hips. The collection was quiet, but quiet should never be confused with boring; its beauty lived in the push and pull between rigid and fluid, raw and refined, practical and precious. The egg may have provided a lovely metaphor for spring, new life and fragility, but it was the evidence of the human hand that made these clothes feel alive.
Christian Siriano
Christian Siriano has never met a fantasy he couldn’t turn into a gown, and for Spring 2027 he went straight into fairytale territory. Inspired by the forgotten French story The Queen of the Flowery Isles, Siriano borrowed the romance and extravagance of 18th-century France but dressed it for a woman who wants to rule the party, not wait around to be rescued at one. Corsetry, exaggerated shoulders and unapologetic volume provided the drama as flowers seemed to take over everything: a hot-pink feathered and ruffled two-piece practically bloomed around the body, while a lime-green floral gown paired a tiny lace-up bodice with a sweeping skirt. Then came a shocking-pink high-neck gown, sculpted through the waist before exploding toward the floor in classic Siriano fashion. None of this was asking to be subtle, nor should it have. Siriano understands that sometimes fashion’s job is simply to let us dream a little bigger, dress a little louder and take up far more room than necessary.
Wiederhoeft
Wiederhoeft crowned its women as queens, but these were no delicate storybook monarchs. Titled “QUEENS,” with a runway presentation fittingly called “LAST LOOK,” the collection found Jackson Wiederhoeft pushing the house’s obsessive handwork into increasingly decadent territory, moving through pale lilac, ivory, bruised rose and eventually a procession of black that felt almost funereal. Corsets remained the backbone, but the real story was in the details: stargazer lilies constructed from beads and wire, Vienna lace layered beneath tulle, glass-cut beads, crystals, pearls, silk ribbons and custom floral jacquards that made each look feel like an heirloom unearthed from another century. Antique and vintage jewelry spanning Victorian, Art Nouveau, Etruscan Revival and Art Deco references only deepened that sense of history. Yet for all the corsetry, ballgown skirts and painstaking embroidery, there was nothing dusty about it. Wiederhoeft’s queens were romantic, strange, sensual and occasionally a little sinister, dressed less for a coronation than for the final scene of a very beautiful drama.
Jane Wade
Jane Wade left the office behind for Spring 2027 and headed straight for the water. Titled The Riverbed, the collection imagined a woman coming down from the mountain after a trail run and heading into the river without necessarily changing clothes, giving Wade room to explore what she calls “amphibious femininity.” Technical fabrics twisted, zipped, wrapped and clung to the body, creating clothes that felt simultaneously protective and exposed. A corseted utility dress dissolved into an undone skirt, slouchy cargos sat low beneath a metallic cutout bodysuit and an asymmetric mini twisted around the body like something that had just emerged from the water. KEEN footwear kept the collection literally grounded, while Wade’s CFDA x Google Fashion Fellowship pushed her ongoing interest in where technology and fashion can meet. But underneath all the innovation was a proposition women have understood forever: practical doesn’t have to mean sexless, and feminine certainly doesn’t have to mean fragile.
Calvin Klein Collection
Veronica Leoni is still stripping Calvin Klein down, and Spring 2027 proved there is plenty of sex left in simplicity. Continuing her exploration of American Minimalism, Leoni took the house codes we could probably identify from across the room the pencil skirt, slip, trouser, crisp tailoring and occasional flash of underwear and pulled everything closer to the body. Silhouettes were long, lean and beautifully unfussy, from a whisper-thin camisole paired with a fluid white skirt to a fuzzy black cropped top and razor-clean column skirt. Even a sheer blush skirt worn with a plain black turtleneck carried more heat than something far more revealing might have. That restraint is becoming one of Leoni’s most compelling tools at Calvin Klein. Her woman doesn’t need crystals, feathers or a complicated styling trick to make an entrance; a great cut, an exposed waist and the confidence to leave well enough alone will do just fine.
Christian Cowan
Christian Cowan went to old Hollywood for Spring 2027, but he wasn’t interested in simply putting women in pretty gowns and calling it glamour. Inspired by Nathanael West’s The Day of the Locust, Cowan looked beyond the silver-screen fantasy to the women underneath it, exploring the space between character and reality, performance and self. A liquid champagne gown skimmed the body with the simplicity of a 1930s screen siren, while corsetry, lingerie and a slinky black satin column skirt brought the fantasy somewhere darker. One of the strongest looks paired a fitted black turtleneck with dramatic cascading fringe and electric-blue tights, the kind of styling decision that yanks vintage glamour straight into downtown New York. Archival textiles from the 1920s and ’50s appeared alongside crystal, lace and sculptural taffeta, giving Cowan plenty of history to play with without letting nostalgia run the show. The woman here knows everyone is watching, but more importantly, she knows exactly what she wants them to see.
Monse
MONSE has always looked its best when something feels just a little bit wrong, and Spring 2027 gave Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia plenty of beautiful imperfections to play with. Returning to the runway for the first time since departing Oscar de la Renta, the designers looked to the “broken” tulip, an irregular bloom that became an apt metaphor for a collection about beauty that doesn’t need fixing. Florals twisted and unraveled across the body as asymmetrical draping, exposed lingerie, fringe and distressed surfaces kept things from becoming too ladylike. A striped halter knit tucked into a tulip-print bubble mini made prep feel a little naughty, while another striped set distorted proportion and direction. Then came a barely-there embroidered floral dress that seemed to grow directly around the body, tangled with stems, petals and flashes of skin. After years of splitting their attention between two houses, Kim and Garcia seemed to be having fun with MONSE again, and the clothes were better for it. Sometimes you have to let the flowers grow a little wild.
Kim Shui
Kim Shui knows that in New York, sometimes simply walking down the block is enough reason to serve a look. For Spring 2027, she turned that everyday performance all the way up, pulling from the theatricality of Peking Opera and the elaborate mating displays of birds of paradise and peacocks to explore the relationship between getting dressed and being seen. Traditional Lingzi feathers shot dramatically above the body as corsetry, brocade, embroidery, fringe and draping moved between ceremony and sex appeal. A white embroidered jacket and micro mini arrived beneath an enormous wrapped headpiece, while a black corset and red embroidered skirt mixed feathers, exposed skin and a bold red lip with delicious confidence. Another barely-there white mini was softened by cascading chiffon and topped with two towering feathers that swayed with every step. Was it excessive? Absolutely, and that was precisely the fun of it. Shui’s women have never been interested in shrinking themselves to make anyone else comfortable, and this season made taking up space look like an art form.
Eckhaus Latta
Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta have always understood that basics get a lot more interesting once you stop treating them like basics. For Spring 2027, Eckhaus Latta took the familiar language of American sportswear and messed with it just enough sheer fabrics, exposed construction, strange proportions and layers that seemed to have landed on the body almost by accident. A cream transparent T-shirt disappeared into low-slung black trousers with an angular dipped waist, while a striped zip cardigan and mustard skirt made a knit set feel surprisingly sexy. Smoky translucent layers edged in pink gave another otherwise simple top-and-skirt combination a hazy softness. That same instinct carried into the brand’s limited-edition J.Crew collaboration, created after the designers dug through decades of the retailer’s catalogs and reinterpreted its recognizable colors and staples through their wonderfully peculiar lens. Even with a premise as delightfully odd as “Sisyphus smiling,” the point was rather simple: your everyday clothes don’t have to behave themselves, and neither do you.
Altuzarra
For Spring 2027, Joseph Altuzarra found his starting point in photographs from Casa Susanna, the Catskills retreat where men gathered during the 1950s and ’60s to dress as women and experience a freedom that the outside world didn’t always afford them. Rather than treating that history like costume, Altuzarra focused on the joy, intimacy and self-invention captured in those images, allowing the clothes to slowly move from masculine restraint into something far more expressive. An oversized black blazer was loosened up with a hot-pink shirt and sheer embellished pencil skirt, while a chartreuse silk shirt worn open over a bra made femininity feel sensual without becoming precious. Faded animal prints, madras and vintage-feeling fabrics gave the collection the haziness of an old American summer photograph before crystals, sequins and flashes of glamour began breaking through. By the finale, garments looked almost torn apart to expose sparkling layers underneath, landing Altuzarra’s message without overexplaining it: sometimes getting dressed isn’t about becoming someone else at all, but finally having the freedom to show more of who you already are.
For All Mankind
There was a very specific kind of fashion chaos happening in the early 2000s, when skinny jeans, oversized sunglasses, massive handbags, tiny tops and dangerously high heels could all coexist in one outfit and somehow it worked. For Spring/Summer 2027, Nicola Brognano brought that deliciously messy It-girl energy back to 7 For All Mankind, grounding the collection in the denim that made the brand a Y2K staple. Cropped skinnies and micro hot pants were mixed with crisp shirting, lingerie, leather, bouclé and slouchy tailoring, while scarves, layered jewelry and unapologetically large bags made everything feel styled rather than simply worn. There was nostalgia here, of course, but the collection worked best when it stopped trying to recreate the paparazzi era and instead remembered what made it fun in the first place: getting dressed without worrying whether everything was supposed to go together.
Prabal Gurung
Prabal Gurung has never been afraid of emotion, and for Spring/Summer 2027, softness became his way into a conversation about strength. Titled Ray of Light, the collection connected memories of women gathering at Nepal’s ancient Dhunge Dhara water spouts with the freedom Gurung witnessed years later at a sunrise rave in Brooklyn two seemingly distant worlds brought together through movement, ritual and the ways we create space for ourselves. That duality appeared in draped linen, fluid tailoring, silk organza, frayed edges and beautifully embellished surfaces, moving from quiet ivory, parchment and sand into saffron, marigold, pink and mehndi green. The strongest pieces seemed to float rather than fight the body, including a beautifully simple column dress and richly embroidered separates, proving that Gurung didn’t need excessive theatrics to communicate his message. Sometimes softness really can do the heavy lifting.
Campillo
Patricio Campillo continued rewriting the codes of Mexican dress for Spring/Summer 2027 with In Medias Res, a collection interested less in perfect memories than the fragments we actually carry with us. Traditional charro references remained part of CAMPILLO’s language, but they were stretched, cropped, layered and disrupted until they felt entirely contemporary. Horsehair appeared in unexpected places, tailoring shifted away from the body, denim was given sculptural proportions, and flashes of silk and saturated color kept the clothes from becoming overly reverential. Even the imperfections discovered during fittings a slipping shoulder, an unexpected fold, a layer suddenly exposed became details worth preserving. Against the East River and Brooklyn Bridge, Campillo showed that honoring heritage doesn’t require freezing it in time; sometimes the most respectful thing you can do with tradition is allow it to keep moving.
Fforme
For Spring/Summer 2027, FFORME imagined the Manhattan woman as someone who could move from the Bowery to Park Avenue without changing who she was although she might change her coat. Inspired by the rebellious bricolage of Judy Blame, the collection took familiar pieces like the car coat, shirt, trouser and jean and sliced, folded and stripped them down until their proportions felt slightly off in exactly the right way. Black and white did much of the talking, but the restraint made the details louder: exposed midriffs beneath oversized outerwear, slashed tailoring, sculpted leather, elongated trousers and beautifully clean shirting. Hardware, perfume bottles, silver boxes and other found objects were transformed into jewelry and accessories, adding some necessary weirdness to all that precision. It was minimalism for someone who still wants people to wonder what exactly she has going on.
Cult Gaia
Cult Gaia returned to New York Fashion Week with Behesht, Persian for “heaven,” but Jasmin Larian Hekmat’s version of paradise wasn’t interested in pretending pain never happened. Inspired by the loss of her grandmother, Mommy Aghdas, the collection moved from mourning toward renewal, beginning in darker neutrals before opening into green, sky blue, red and softer pinks. That emotional progression became physical through sculptural organza, silk, rustic knits, metallic tweeds and elaborate ring constructions, some assembled from more than 2,000 individual pieces. There was plenty of Cult Gaia’s familiar Instagram-ready drama, particularly in the gold hardware and skin-baring silhouettes, but the collection felt most interesting when glamour and vulnerability occupied the same look. Even the beauty followed suit, with undone hair by Karim Belghiran for TRESemmé and Raoul Alejandre’s warm, flushed makeup using Lisa Eldridge creating women who looked polished, but never too perfect.
