Paul Andrew Is Returning to New York Fashion Week
Paul Andrew is returning to New York Fashion Week.
The fashion designer is hosting a presentation on Sept. 11 to showcase his latest footwear collection from his relaunched namesake label. For the presentation, Andrew is taking over Rockefeller Center’s rink level and Jupiter restaurant to show the collection around the Prometheus Fountain against a backdrop of roller-skaters. Andrew last participated in New York Fashion Week in 2018.
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“I’m part of the CFDA and I’ve lived in New York my entire adult life,” Andrew said about why he wanted to return to New York Fashion Week. “I moved to New York when I was 20 years old to work with Narciso Rodriguez and basically never left until I got the call from Ferragamo. New York has been so good to me on a business level and all of my friends and great connections are there — it just feels like the right place to restart my fashion week journey.”
Andrew relaunched his namesake footwear brand last year roughly a year after he left his role as creative director at Salvatore Ferragamo. The designer joined Ferragamo in 2016 as its design director of women’s footwear, and was appointed creative director of womenswear the following year.
He paused his label upon taking on the creative director role, which he stepped down from in 2021.
The designer explained he’s leveraging his experience at Ferragamo for his relaunched label, using his new connections and learnings to run the brand in this new chapter.
“The experience at Ferragamo taught me so much on so many levels,” he said. “One of the foremost learnings was the importance of freedom and having my own voice. This new chapter for me is really about this freedom of expression for myself and going at my own pace, and that feels great.”
Andrew explained that for the collection he’ll present at New York Fashion Week, the design process shifted a bit to align with changes in consumer preferences.
“Even in the year that I’ve been reworking my collection — initially it was very much focused on this post-COVID[-19] idea that people wanted to get dressed up,” he explained. “They were very much into color and high heels and party shoes. But I feel now much more related to this idea of — everyone is saying this phrase, ‘quiet luxury’ — it’s this more timeless luxury idea.”
Andrew explained the collection is designed in a color palette of black, white, bright red and beige and focuses more on lower heels. The styles are embellished with silver details and metal zips, which he stated will become new signatures for the brand.
In conjunction with the New York Fashion Week presentation, Andrew is releasing the campaign for the fall collection featuring model Veronika Kunz and photographed by Alessio Bolzoni. Andrew explained this is the first time a model’s face will be seen in his ad campaigns. The campaign will be seen in posters throughout New York City and across social media and other channels.
Going forward, Andrew has plans to host in-store events with his retail partners to continue meeting customers and hopes to continue to show at New York Fashion Week.
“Even the five years that my brand was paused, in that short period of time, the industry changed so much,” Andrew said. “The way people see product — magazines are maybe less relevant than they were in the past. It’s much more about social media and influencers and celebrity and red carpet. I think that this is an experience to introduce all of these new people that I didn’t necessarily know before into the brand and get them excited about it.”
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