NY Fashion Week: Precision at Carolina Herrera, Color at Bach Mai, Sparkle at Boucheron
Shonda Rhimes, Michelle Monaghan, Chloe Fineman and Camila Alves McConaughey were among the front-row attendees for the debut of Wes Gordon’s Spring 2025 collection for Carolina Herrera — each is a terrific example of the smart, stylish women who have loved this label since Mrs. Herrera founded her house in 1981.
Gordon, who signed on as the brand’s creative director in 2018, remains an outstanding custodian of the Herrera DNA, which he balances with his thoughtful attention to detail and an aesthetic that appeals to chic fans in every age bracket (that latter feat is much harder than it sounds, but every CEO of a heritage brand will say it’s vital to a brand’s long-term success).
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Taking place Monday morning at 28 Liberty Street in New York’s Financial District, Gordon said his Spring 2025 collection was all about precision and balance. “When there are too many tricks and too much noise, you can’t hear the Wow,” he explained to The Hollywood Reporter following the show. “So I stripped back and pared down. I made things their most architectural and sculptural, but still super feminine.”
In that vein, Gordon noted that he was striving for “one perfect detail” in each design. “In some cases, it was a color you noticed,” he said. “The first half of the show was black and white, and then color started blossoming as though in a garden; and then in second half, it was about four colors: pink, blue, yellow and red. In other cases, it was an embellishment. In some cases, just a singular drape on one shoulder. But if I did that, then the piece was black and really straight. This collection is about allowing things to shine without too many tricks. I didn’t want tricky clothes. I wanted beautiful, stunning clothes.”
Among the standout pieces: Gordon’s latest take on Herrera’s iconic white button-down blouses, here crafted in textured silk gazar and paired with black Bermuda shorts with a V-waistband; the contrast of a silk camp shirt in the house’s signature black-and-white polka dot and a lush ballgown skirt in black-and-white rose jacquard; and an abundance of options perfect for Sunday’s Emmy Awards, including a textured pink tulle boat-neck gown with an open back.
Attendees also raved about the best-of-Janet-Jackson soundtrack, which Gordon said was on-brand for the house. “We are all about a strong, powerful, sexy, confident woman, so it’s the music we needed for today’s collection,” he added.
Stars Among the Sparkles at the Boucheron Exhibition
Style fans can always count on one terrific jewelry event during New York Fashion Week, and this season Boucheron took the honors, hosting a lavish exhibition that opened Tuesday evening at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum. Designed to highlight new and archival pieces by the legendary jewelry house, the event also was conceived to celebrate the opening of the brand’s first New York boutique.
Gwyneth Paltrow, Colman Domingo, Cole Sprouse and Hailee Steinfeld were among the guests at “From Paris to New York,” an immersive experience that’s open to the public at the Cooper Hewitt through Sept. 12.
Archival jewels on display include an Art Nouveau hair comb transformed into a brooch worn by Elizabeth Taylor and a bracelet purchased in 1934 by Edward VII, while he was still Prince of Wales, as a gift for Wallis Simpson, two years before he abdicated the British throne so they could marry. At the other end of the house’s history, attendees can view “Or Bleu,” the latest high-jewelry collection by Boucheron creative director Claire Choisne, who was inspired by Icelandic water to conceptualize modernist designs that take their cue from waterfalls, water splashes or the shimmer of ice on a black sand beach. ‘
A section is also devoted to the jeweler’s iconic Question Mark necklace, introduced by Frederic Boucheron in 1879 as a stylish, innovative jeweled piece that was absent a clasp, enabling a woman to put it on without the assistance of a man or a lady’s maid. “From Paris to New York” highlights a variety of Question Mark designs crafted over the past 145 years, including the reversible high-jewelry concept Choisne unveiled in July.
Prior to a morning tour of the exhibition, Choisne discussed why her forward-thinking aesthetic has already resonated with the U.S. audience. “I think people here are open to creativity,” she told THR. “From an aesthetic aspect, Americans understand big pieces, statement pieces, and that’s not always the case everywhere. So for my designs, I think it will be the right match.” Following Boucheron’s Sept. 3 opening on Madison Avenue, future boutiques are in the works for Beverly Hills, Las Vegas and Miami.
Frédéric Boucheron founded his eponymous jewelry house on Paris’ Place Vend?me in 1893, the first jeweler to establish itself on a square that today is almost fully populated by luxury brands that include Chanel, Dior, Van Cleef & Arpels and others.
When Choisne arrived at Boucheron 13 years ago, she said her first task was a thorough exploration of the archives. “My purpose was to understand and focus on the work of Frédéric Boucheron, because I was really interested in understanding his philosophy,” she said. “What I discovered was so much diversity within the archives. For me, it was quite obvious he was a visionary. His Question Mark necklace, for example: It seems so simple, yet it’s so smart in its technique, and the same for the way he mixed rock crystal with diamonds. And I thought, OK, he was bold enough to propose these materials and techniques, and I knew he was a good match for me. So today, innovation and pushing boundaries is really about continuity.”
Entry to “From Paris to New York” is available through Sept. 12 via timed tickets that must be reserved in advance.
Bach Mai’s Ode to Color Following Personal Loss
At Chelsea Factory on Sunday evening, Bach Mai decided to explore a bold side of fashion’s color spectrum, for a decidedly poignant reason: He had recently lost his father, and in the midst of mourning, he began thinking about a question his dad, who immigrated to the U.S. from Vietnam, asked about his son’s first collection: “Where is all the color?” So Mai decided to honor his father by embracing color to an unprecedented degree within his eponymous label. He dubbed the collection, “Invincible Summer.”
“It was about purposefully and mindfully choosing optimism, choosing to not focus on the negative and to let the light shine in,” Mai explained to THR backstage after the show. “This time I banished the use of black in the collection, and doing so showed me really how hard it is; I didn’t allow myself to use a single stitch of black.”
Overt glamour proved to be the perfect partner with Mai’s lush color palette. The designer said he was inspired by Cecil Beaton’s famed images of women in gowns by Charles James, taken between 1946 and 1948. Hence the saturated tones of red, blue and pink were shaped into elegant, structured dresses that highlight curves and unabashed femininity via shaped skirts, tiered gowns that floated as they moved, silk necklines that wrapped around shoulders, lavish bows and pleated tulle underskirts.
“I just wanted to reference that image that had been seared into my mind, of Charles James gowns by Cecil Beaton, to show what is the future of American glamour, but make it diverse and inclusive,” Mai said. “It’s what American glamour is and can be, for all women and all body types.”
A student of Paris haute couture before launching his label in 2021, Mai has partnered with historic French fabric house Hurel, which was founded in 1873 and is a fitting resource for the silks and satins the designer employed throughout his collection. Though Mai’s brand is young, he’s earning ample attention from Hollywood, with Amal Clooney wearing a paillette-embellished gown to an Aug. 31 Cartier party at the 81st Venice Film Festival, while Ashley Park wore a pomegranate-hued chiffon gown from Mai’s Spring 2024 collection to this week’s press appearances in Rome for Season 4 of Emily in Paris.
This season, New York-based diamond house Leviev also signed on with Mai to provide more than $50 million in jewels, accessorizing 11 looks with Beaton-inspired diamond designs, while an additional necklace represented a collaboration between Mai and the jewelry house. The 47-carat “Le Bal” high-jewelry necklace showcased a 32-carat fancy yellow diamond and was shown with the single white evening gown in Mai’s collection. “He showed us the gown while it was still in the sketch stage, and we worked together for about a month, which is really a rush for us,” said Chagit Leviev, president and CEO of Leviev Group USA. “But it was about ensuring that 32-carat yellow diamond fell at exactly the right place on the neck and with that gown, and the result is incredibly elegant.”
Also key to the collection: a lime green halter gown that Mai noted was a pointed reference not only to the bold hue British pop star Charlie XCX vaulted into the stratosphere with the June debut of her hit album brat; it’s also intended as a nod to to the White House run of Vice President Kamala Harris, which likewise embraced the color early in the campaign.
“All of a sudden, hope and optimism came back, and I really needed that right now,” Mai said on Sunday evening with a smile. “So I knew we needed that color in the show. A Brat dress? Awesome.”
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