Being There over Central Park

New York’s last true couture house Carolina Herrera staged its fall 2025 collection show looking over Central Park in the depths of winter, but its inspiration was very much a summer garden.
 
Presented on the 48th floor of a curving skyscraper, one could gaze down on ice skaters below and frozen ponds and lakes, even as the cast glided between thousands of violet peonies skillfully planted in small mounds of gray soil high in the sky.

The juxtaposition was clever and concise for a collection that was clever and concise, and one of the best for the house by creative director Wes Gordon. In part, because his sense of self-editing is so acute, he can create elegant and refined clothes that never look stilted or stiff.
 
Like his opening looks, beautifully cut pants, turtlenecks, each smartly finished enlarged satin flowers – with the perfect sense of proportion. Or a series of midi dresses or charcoal gray suits, each enhanced by gold enamel tulip decorations. 

The sense of elegance was palpable – from a burgundy cashmere sweater worn over a garnet macramé skirt finished with jewels, or an elongated peacoat in burgundy satin – for a hip new generation grand dame. Wes even sent out a latter-day version of the house’s founder classic look – a divine white cotton shirt over black wool pants. 
 
He took chances with his fabrics – like the jacquard of floral lurex blooms, or ivory foiled tweed – but they all worked. The key to this collection was the idea of ephemeral beauty, where clients look upon each purchase as a precious addition to their wardrobe, “like planting a new seed in the garden,” Wes explained in his program notes.

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Perfectly styled by Marie Chaix, and climaxing with the T Rex classic “Cosmic Dancer”, it all felt like an ideal way to begin a sunny yet freezing morning in New York Fashion Week. Heightened by Gordon very smartly putting his couture atelier through their paces this season.
 
“We have the finest atelier in America. They put their heart into making these pieces. There is a level of craft at Herrera that I am so proud of. And I try to showcase that every season and I don’t want that ever to be taken for granted, or not noticed. The men and women who work so hard on these pieces deserve a lot of credit,” insisted the proud designer.
 
Gordon’s inspiration was the cult classic 1979 movie “Being There”, where Peter Sellars plays a naïve savant called Chance Gardener who ends up advising the President of the United States. The show program even quoted a moment where Chance’s simple speech about gardening becomes a brilliant statement of political philosophy.

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“Growth has its season. There are spring and summer, but there are also fall and winter. And then spring and summer again. As long as the roots are not severed, all is well and will be well,” Chance expounds.
 
Which sums up the mood in the fashion community today in New York, where Trump’s barrage of Executive Orders seems aimed at the creative community, and LGBTQI+ folks at its center. Will the roots be severed after four more years in the White House?