This February in New York, sensory deprivation, and textural opulence live in delicate balance in looks ahead to Fall and Winter 2025.

Despite the look ahead to a season of unoffensive buttery brightness, the last few months have felt awash in a tranquil hum of grounded reflection. There has been a heaviness––to routine, to pattern––that molds itself into an eventual dissociative calm. This interior identity has set the ground for a layered sartorial identity that offers familiar Americana and Parisian flare with reformed textures for contrast, balance, and procedural language for weary wearers. Some indicators below:

This New York Fashion Week, offering previews for 2025’s Fall and Winter collections across design spheres, did not tell entirely new stories, but it reminded audiences of the ones that will prompt a second look this Fall.

The February 9th Super Bowl Halftime Show proved that the kaleidoscope of 70s revival is ongoing –– and now we have the flare jeans to prove it. Kendrick Lamar took the show stage in the bootcut Céline women’s Marco Dark Union Wash Jeans during a theatric retelling of Black cultural acclamation. Set to a medley of the Pulitzer Prize winner’s hits with dances choreographed by Charm La’Donna, Kendrick reminded audiences virtual and physical about the flexibility of the casually utilitarian silhouettes.

Veronica Beard’s ready-to-wear Fall collection echoes this revival, celebrating the bootcut and flare jean as garments that bridge bohemian nostalgia and durably-constructed craft. For the Veronicas’ Fall collection, shoppers can anticipate enduring leather goods augmented with multicolored embellishments that match well on handbags, belts, and wooden clog heels alike.

For the remainder of this winter and the start of the next, ready-to-wear coats and studded accessories can be matched with the brand’s Removeable Dickey layering piece, as well as Veronica Beard’s sequined co-ord sets from their evening collection. Disco and workwear blend in balance here, just in time for the later preview of Frederick Anderson’s awaited collection of all-purpose elegance, fashioned for the woman moving about the city.

Veronica Beard FW25 Clog Shoes

Frederick Anderson’s FW25 show was a reflective cabaret celebrating the victories of enduring talent. Every show from the New York designer is a celebration of craft, and this one felt deeply referential in its call for reflection. The Paradise Club’s Maroon and oxblood backdrops complimented stage lowlights to evoke a transporting Crazy Horse-meets-Silencio NYC boîte de nuit atmosphere. The ensuing procession of high neckline lace, feather peplums sequin, sateen zebra patterns, and always-immaculately tailored silhouettes are a resounding mirror of the aesthete founder’s eye for detail. At large, Frederick Anderson’s latest is a welcome invitation to dance, preferably in your weekly best.

In terms of shared tonalities, simultaneous Fashion Weeks around the world offer a reminder of global impetuses, elevating the importance of preservation that calls for earthly, durable items. As often happens, some of the most promising moments came towards the end of the official NYFW calendar, presenting preliminary considerations for future design world leaders.

Sustainable fashion collective HAUS iNCUBATOR, founded by minimalist designer and writer Karina Trofimova, gathered for an intimate celebration of brands bound in their commitment to responsible garment creation and independent artist empowerment. These labels––some currently or just recently shown at Copenhagen Fashion Week––had their FW25 collections previewed by conscientious aesthetes conjoined in the auditory guidance of fashion editor and DJ Karissa Mitchell, also known as AListKariss. Though the festivities of the first night are over, interested visitors can visit through the rest of the week.

One such brand, OpéraSPORT, gave indication of where Scandinavian slow fashion can exist in athleisure-level comfort despite harder-line silhouettes. It’s seemingly formal, but casual in its styling and material construction.

On the same day of the HAUS opening, but on the other side of the Atlantic, Haddy Ceesay, model and founder of sustainable jewelry brand, Diawéne modeled OpéraSPORT’s newest releases of refitted fibers, styled into single-tone layering pieces, laying canvas for biophilic silvers and golds –– a New York re-occurrence throughout the week.

On the symbolic fashion retail capital of Grand Street, biophilic silhouettes were prominently on display at emerging designer showrooms and pop-ups, pairing bean-shaped and bio-inspired accessories with future facing creative apparel silhouettes to creative design.

Kicking off FW festivities was ROOME’s downtown pop-up opening party, where sculpting ABOAB Studio jewelry that looks as if it grew straight from the earth were place against Danica Zheng’s DANZ, a visual feast of asymmetrical hems, pleats, and flowing drapes made from the warmth of lined wools.

The shop owner and designer has painstakingly curated the storefront’s collection of independent designers, offering a platform for innovative creative development models that showcase the yet-unseen worlds of conscious design.

“We focus on emerging designers with eclectic yet wearable aesthetic,” Danica tells ESSENCE.com. “ROOME is always on the search for fresh creative voices that bring energy, fun and new perspectives to our space.”

One resurfacing trend became very clear in the bright spot of this space: the sneaker heel. Who said the old format had to take the same style? Certainly not ROOME feature and experimental footwear brand, Empty Behavior, which takes multiple sporty footwear styles and combines with oft-isolated front and back panel details to create a sculptural and futuristic take on an almost-forgotten classic. 

In a season defined by structured dressing, Bittar’s organic forms play in harmony with Parisian tailoring and Americana’s utilitarian edge. A raw denim jumpsuit feels softer when anchored by an oversized petal choker. Bittar has continued to affirm the heavy metal and reflective auspiciousness that won him the CFDA Accessories Designer of the Year title, the favor of wearers like former First Lady Michelle Obama, Lady Gaga, and Beyoncé, and the recaptured attention of phone-glued audiences with their Webby Award-winning Bittarverse web-series campaign starring Patricia Black and Julie. J. Their Fall collection reeled me back in even further with its endless styling possibilities.

A sharp wool trench gains warmth when styled with a sculptural cuff that mimics curling tendrils. His designs don’t disrupt the clean lines of the moment—they accentuate them, adding a touch of nature’s elegance to fashion’s ongoing dialogue between form and fluidity.

Twisted branch bangles, vine-like collars, and floral pendants that bloom in high-polish metals. The collection channels the free-spirited glamour of the past, but this isn’t nostalgia—it’s a revival reimagined for the now.