What the Hell Happened: Ready-To-Wear Actually Wearable at New York Fashion Week

From Sept. 4 to 11, this season’s New York Fashion Week displayed designers’ Spring 2025 ready-to-wear collections. Unlike the more famous and eccentric haute couture collections, where only one copy is typically produced for each design, ready-to-wear is produced in larger quantities and at more affordable prices. Thus, these designs tend to look more like what people would wear in their daily lives.

Still, these NYFW collections were anything but normal. Some were stunning, some ugly, and some just plain strange. Below is a walkthrough of the five best runways from NYFW, loosely ordered from the least to the most casual. As one progresses from ballgowns to bikinis, it becomes apparent just how diverse designers’s target audiences are. Sure, all these clothes are ready to be worn, but who wears them and where are other questions entirely.

1. Carolina Herrera

Wes Gordon’s Carolina Herrera is probably the least likely brand to scare off fashion skeptics. He maintains the house’s classy reputation with timeless, feminine styles just bold enough to make the wearer the star of a high society event. The Spring 2025 collection accomplishes this with bright, high-contrast colors — black, white, pink, and the primary colors — as well as large, bold patterns. Those with a trained eye will appreciate that he’s maintained the brand’s maturity without caving into the raggedy grandma aesthetic of Virginie Viard’s Chanel.

2. Alaïa

This season’s Alaïa was the first-ever runway show at the Guggenheim Museum of New York. The designer, Pieter Mulier, said the pieces were influenced by the museum’s famous spiral ramp and American fashion. Though the latter wasn’t obvious, the former was evident in the collection’s sinuous folds and slanting hems. Overall, it had a fresh, futuristic feel that finessed minimalism into 47 effortlessly cultured looks.

3. Ralph Lauren

Ralph Lauren’s Spring 2025 collection is for the person who can afford Carolina Herrera, but wants something more casual for a jaunt to the coast. Ralph Lauren took this inspiration seriously: the show was hosted on a horse farm in the Hamptons with his vintage cars as decoration. The collection was everything Ralph Lauren has always done well: elegance, Americana, and style for every member of the family. In this case, the quality was still upheld in a way that’s eminently wearable for the average person.

4. Off-White

Off-White has always been far edgier and more casual than Ralph Lauren. It was the same brand that dressed Kylie Jenner in that questionable wedding dress and backward baseball cap at the 2022 Met Gala. However, the brand’s actual runways redeem it. As always, Off-White pulled from streetwear aesthetics to craft a range of revealing, yet relaxed looks that embody the concept of cool. Ib Kamara added a new twist to the aesthetic this season with plunging necklines and pops of red.

5. Di Petsa

Di Petsa is not for the faint of heart. Its designer, Dimitra Petsa, is known for two things: her Greek mythology-inspired collections and clingy garments that mimic the appearance of soaked clothes. This spring’s collection featured an exploration of the Minotaur myth, self-pleasure, and the implications of those things concerning womanhood. The more literarily inclined might enjoy reading about the unorthodox details in these looks. Visual learners might be intrigued by the flowy dresses, oceanic motifs, and tan-line body art that comprise this collection.

By now, New York Fashion Week has drawn to a close. The hallowed halls of fashion won’t reopen till February. Until then, buyers and consumers will have to satisfy themselves with this most recent display of beauty and talent.

—Staff writer Giselle P. Acosta can be reached at giselle.acosta@thecrimson.com.