It’s a weird time for fashion at the moment. In fact, it’s a weird time full stop. As the world descends ever closer towards a fiery apocalypse, it makes sense that the amount of money we spend on clothes is plummeting across the board, as we turn our attention to experiences over material goods – or, you know, just trying to keep a roof over our heads, the lights on, and food on our plates. 

You can feel the global financial crisis and bleak political situation rippling through the industry’s ranks, as brands strip their runways and ad campaigns back to the bare-mininum in a bid to cut costs, and yet more go bust after trying to stay afloat as long as they can. Just last month, cult fashion faves like Y/Project and Saks Potts called it quits, while plenty of others are reporting that if things keep going the way that they are, they won’t be around forever.

Despite evidence to the contrary, I’m not here to be a total Debbie Downer. Beyond the dismal picture I’ve painted so far, it’s not all bad, and fashion still has the power to be truly inspiring – an art form that invites us to dream, and, like cinema and music, provides us an escape when things get too rough. Sure, my own focus is on paying my bills right now rather than dropping wads of cash on clothes, but there are plenty of designers that have me excited right now (and yes, wishing I did have a bit more disposable income to blow on them). 

At the time of writing, we’re five days into New York Fashion Week’s AW25 womenswear shows, and while there is a sort of subdued energy to some of the shows as the big names continue to play it safe with their collections, that hot creative spirit the city is known for is still managing to bubble up between the cracks. Most exciting have been a swathe of big debuts and almost-debuts across the week, as a new generation of wide-eyed talent gets ready to make their mark. Among them: Gabe Gordon, Destroyer of Worlds, and Jane Wade. 

As NYFW wraps up – and we have a moment to digest and ruminate on what we’ve seen before London, Milan, and Paris get underway thanks to a slightly adjusted schedule of dates this season – I’ve put together a list of the names you need to know. 

GABE GORDON 

Gabe Gordon has been making a name for himself for a while now, but AW25 marks the first time he’s been on the official CFDA schedule. The rising designer is largely known for his knitwear and creating collections rich with texture, having first picked up the needles when his father passed away in 2019. Since then, Gordon has gone on to explore grief, identity, and queerness through his clothes, but if that sounds particularly heavy, then it’s anything but – there is a lightness and playfulness that forms a common thread between his collections. For his AW25 on-schedule debut Rubber Boyfriend, Gordon looked to the formative time spanning your high school years for inspiration, turning out his take on the kind of thing the jocks and cheerleaders would wear – this meant low-cut vests and billowing shorts, as well as frothy little mini-dresses with puff sleeves and yet more slinky, second-skin styles, as worn by a diverse cast of models carrying pom-poms.

DESTROYER OF WORLDS

Cole Durkee founded his label in 2022, with AW25 marking the first time he’d shown his clothes on the runway. Based out of LA, the designer is gaining recognition for his fantastical approach to fashion, turning fans into stars of their own fantasy role-playing game through mega-conceptual looks incorporating everything from wings, to horses heads, to horns. For his first NYFW appearance, Durkee staged his own trashy talk show The Dark Forest, with his motley crew of models taking on the role of hosts and anchors. The looks offered up what he does best – incorporating a mish-mash of references, each one came made up of cast-off fabric and deadstock, with denim shredded and distressed to within an inch of its life, leather undergoing destructive washing techniques and twisted into bolshy, oversized silhouettes, and tiny bikinis, skimpy minis, and bum-skimming shorts making up the best of the rest. Also seen throughout were ravaged iterations of the American flag, as Durkee lived up to his ‘Destroyer of Worlds’ reputation. 

JANE WADE 

Jane Wade’s AW25 show The Merger sucked us into a dismal, badly lit corporate office, and somehow made it look like a sexy proposition. Models all had a role to play in this almost dystopian scenario – from the underpaid, overworked intern, to the office siren, to the unscrupulous CEO, who on this occasion was played by suited-and-booted Real Housewife Lisa Rinna. With Wade subverting classic business-casual styles, the line-up was heavy with twisted, outsized tailoring, blown-up outerwear, and more than a few skimpy looks more suited to debauched office parties, the collection marked a maturing for Wade. The designer spoke of getting serious this season, with her sights set on scaling her label – the models we saw on the runway, she explained post-show, could well be her ten or so years from now.

ZOE GUSTAVIA ANNA WHALEN 

Read Laura Pitcher’s interview here.