Norma Kamali NYFW Autumn/Winter 2025 Collection Review: A Modern Collection by a Seasoned Designer

Norma Kamali designs for the modern woman. Her new Autumn/Winter 2025 collection features sleek designs, layering, and 20th-century silhouettes infused with a contemporary flair. According to the showroom, all the leather pieces in the collection were vegan leather, and everything was machine washable. Many concepts and events influenced Kamali’s collection, including Bob Dylan, the Los Angeles wildfires, and the dichotomy between masculinity and femininity.

Kamali has been a staple in the fashion scene for some time now. She is best known for her sleeping bag jacket, which she first debuted in 1973. For this year’s collection, Kamali brought back the original sleeping bag silhouette and introduced other designs, adding different patterns and cuts to the jacket.

In addition to the sleeping bag jacket, Kamali has always been known for her high-class camping and outdoor wear, which is evident throughout the collection. Kamali utilized many prints, such as the buffalo print, tree print, and a new leaf print that she debuted in this collection. The prints were scattered throughout the clothes, which were all produced in black, brown, and various outdoor colors, giving the collection a modern nature-inspired or hunter-like look. This range of prints lent versatility to the garments, despite Kamali’s decision to stick to a few classic silhouettes in the collection.

According to the showroom assistants, the outdoor look was inspired by the wildfires earlier this Los Angeles year. In the wake of the fires, Kamali was interested in reconsidering her and her wearer’s relationship with nature. Based on this approach, the fabrics chosen for this collection were very lightweight, providing large, flowy silhouettes and ensuring that the wearer would not get too hot or too cold.

Kamali’s presentation exuded a playfulness, exemplified by the large LED screen that displayed editorial photos during the exhibit. In the pictures, models struck both fun and serious poses, adding to the sense of lightheartedness.

The large silhouettes throughout Kamali’s collection picked up on many contemporary fashion themes such as large baggy pants and skirts, which are a large part of the modern fashion zeitgeist. Kamali also drew inspiration from looks that were popular during the ’70s and ’80s. One example is the fedora look, which was influenced by Kamali’s current fascination with Bob Dylan after watching the Martin Scorsese documentary about his life. Kamali highlighted Bob Dylan’s influence on her work by playing his discography through the speakers during the viewing of the collection.

This inspiration clearly manifested itself in the styling of the clothes. Many of the looks were accessorized with black or brown fedoras with feathers. Hats and headpieces were emphasized in the collection, as other mannequins were adorned with head wraps and headbands.

Layering was a recurring theme throughout the collection, with many looks featuring multiple jackets or skirts worn over each other. One creative piece that embodied an ethos of layering was a pair of pants made of leather and mesh. The top part of the pants, which went to the top of the knee, was made out of vegan leather and, from afar, looked like a pair of shorts. A closer look at the pants revealed that the mesh was sewn to the bottom of the leather to fill out the pants, allowing the bottom to be see-through. This fusion of two different textile fabrics was present throughout the collection, as Kamali used quilted fabrics for varying dress designs and in one look, placed a leather jacket on top of a quilted jacket.

Kamali’s affinity for layering and mixing fabrics also resulted in a jacket made of curly faux fur, according to the showroom. The bottom of the look was a pair of mesh leggings combined with curly fur from the bottom of the knee downward, resembling leg warmers.

The last significant theme that the showroom highlighted was the split between masculine and feminine — the latter being a significant inspiration for the collection. The show representatives explained that Kamali feels like the world is too masculine right now, so she wanted to add a feminine touch to the collection.

The theme of femininity manifested in different ways, but one of the most eye-catching was a look that reimagined the well-known silhouette of a suit. Kamali made the top a leather jacket, and the bottom of the look was a long quilted or leather suit.

Despite the artistry of the collection, the multitude of themes and inspirations lacked a coherent vision. Kamali’s collection felt pulled in too many directions and was sometimes contradictory, like the Bob Dylan inspiration coupled with the collection's attempt to embrace femininity. Because of this, there didn’t seem to be a clear ethos for the collection, which ultimately led to interesting designs but a lack of unified vision and design language.

—Staff writer Christian A. Gines can be reached at christian.gines@thecrimson.com.