Macy’s Herald Square has long been a stage for American fashion, but this fall, one of the names taking up space in its famed 34th Street windows belongs to a decidedly newer generation. Theophilio, the New York-based label founded by Jamaican-born designer Edvin Thompson, has unveiled a limited-edition capsule as part of Macy’s celebration of American fashion, joining Tommy Hilfiger, Donna Karan, Michael Kors, Jonathan Cohen and LAPOINTE.
The lineup puts Thompson in rare company. While several of the participating designers have spent decades building the businesses that helped shape the American fashion establishment, Theophilio is still writing its first chapters. That makes its inclusion particularly notable, especially at a moment when the industry continues to debate what meaningful support for young Black designers should actually look like. Here, that support comes with product on the selling floor, visibility to Macy’s massive customer base and a 34th Street window that places Theophilio in the same conversation as some of the country’s most recognizable fashion names.
And Thompson isn’t softening Theophilio’s identity for the occasion. The capsule is unmistakably rooted in his world, translating his Jamaican childhood, Caribbean heritage and New York sensibility into body-skimming striped knits, airbrushed separates and graffiti-inspired graphics. Red, green, yellow and black run across dresses and sweaters while expressive typography covers trousers, jackets and accessories. It is vibrant, personal and culturally specific, which is precisely why seeing it presented within an institution like Macy’s feels important.
“Every piece in this collection carries a part of where I’m from, the airbrush art and graffiti culture I grew up around helped shape it,” Thompson says of the collection. “Celebrating that alongside Macy’s is a full-circle moment for me. I want people to feel the same joy and nostalgia I felt when putting it together.”
That full-circle moment extends beyond Thompson’s personal relationship with Macy’s. Herald Square is more than another department store location. For generations, its windows have functioned as a public-facing billboard for American fashion, broadcasting designers, trends and ideas to New Yorkers, tourists and shoppers passing through one of Manhattan’s busiest corridors. Who gets that visibility matters. Seeing Theophilio there creates a visual that historically has not been afforded to enough young Black designers: a brand rooted in Black and Caribbean culture positioned alongside the American fashion establishment rather than adjacent to it.
Fashion has spent the better part of this decade talking about pipelines, mentorships and creating opportunities for Black designers. But visibility without commerce can only take a brand so far. Young labels need purchase orders, retail partners, customers and access to the same platforms heritage brands have enjoyed for years. Being sold at Macy’s introduces Theophilio to shoppers who may have never encountered the brand at New York Fashion Week, on a celebrity or while scrolling through fashion Instagram. More importantly, it gives those consumers the opportunity to actually buy into Thompson’s world.
Theophilio doesn’t have to abandon its cultural specificity to earn that space either. If anything, the capsule proves the opposite. The striped knits are loud, the airbrushing is nostalgic and the colors refuse to disappear. Thompson is bringing Jamaica, New York street culture and his own visual language into one of America’s most recognizable retail institutions without sanding down what made people pay attention to Theophilio in the first place.
Tommy Hilfiger, Donna Karan and Michael Kors represent chapters of American fashion history that have already been written. With Theophilio now occupying the same Macy’s windows, Thompson offers a glimpse at who gets to help write the next one.