At NYFW, Vivian Wilson and ‘Love Island’ Favorites Stole the Show#

Fashion Chatter

Mermaids, Mascots and Elon Musk’s Daughter#

All stole shows at New York Fashion Week. Plus, a jeweler to the rap elite opens a store and designing costumes for a hip-hop ballet.

Vivian Wilson modeling a look from the New York label Dauphinette’s latest collection.Credit...Jenn Xu

Published Sept. 19, 2025Updated Sept. 20, 2025

Fashion weeks in many ways are as much about people as they are about clothes. Not just the designers and models, but also the spectators watching runways from the sidelines. Collections showcase future trends. Faces that break out offer a sense of who is trending culturally right now.

At the latest New York Fashion Week, one of the most talked-about names was Vivian Wilson, Elon Musk’s eldest daughter, who walked in three shows: Prabal Gurung, Alexis Bittar and Dauphinette, which she opened with a scream on the catwalk.

“We knew that there was going to be a certain level of virality around Vivian’s appearance,” said Olivia Cheng, the Dauphinette designer, who was alluding to how Ms. Wilson, who is transgender, has gained attention for publicly critiquing her father, from whom she is estranged. “People really, really care about what she has to say.”

Someone else who caused a stir on the runway was Olandria Carthen, a fan favorite from the latest season of the reality show “Love Island USA,” who earned a rare bout of applause as she walked in the Sergio Hudson show.

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“The Gilded Age” actor Ben Ahlers at a party for Dior’s newly redesigned New York flagship store.Credit...Rebecca Smeyne for The New York Times

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Ellie the Elephant at the Off-White show.Credit...via Off White

Ms. Carthen, along with her co-star Nicolas Vansteenberghe, was also in the front row at Off-White — as was Ellie the Elephant, the New York Liberty’s twerking mascot. (Off-White is the team’s official culture and style partner.) “She’s transcended sports, she’s transcended what it means to be a team’s mascot and she’s really immersed herself in fashion, in style, in New York culture,” Shana Stephenson, the Liberty’s chief brand officer, said of Ellie.

Seated in the front row at Diotima was another ascendant figure in New York City culture: Rama Duwaji, an illustrator and the wife of Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic mayoral candidate.

Ms. Duwaji may not be broadly recognized as of yet, but that put her in the company of other niche yet notable people in the fashion week crowds. That group included the actress Sara Paxton, who briefly reprised her role as the titular mermaid in the 2006 film “Aquamarine” at the Tyler McGillivary show (which was staged aboard the Wavertree ship docked at Manhattan’s South Street Seaport), and the “Gilded Age” actor Ben Ahlers.

Mr. Ahlers, who has become something of a sex symbol after the show’s latest season, bounced between parties thrown by GQ, Dior and Nylon and the front rows at shows for Todd Snyder and Simkhai. In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Ahlers, who grew up in the Midwest, said of fashion week’s allure: “I’m from Iowa, where there is no style.” Attending shows, he added, has helped him “claim my sense of style as an adult.”

Shop Talk#

Clockwise from left, the artist known as KAWS, who will be the first to lead a new artistic residency program at Uniqlo; a bag from the Strathberry and Cinq a Sept collaboration; and Nike’s new shoes developed with Air Afrique.

Lila Barth for The New York Times; via Strathberry; via Nike

• Another week, another crop of footwear collaborations. Nike, in the wake of its latest sneaker partnership with the artist Tom Sachs, announced a new shoe, available Oct. 9, that was made in partnership with Air Afrique, the defunct Pan-African airline turned Parisian creative company. Sperry also teased a new line of boat shoes with platform soles and grommets created with Monse (maker of the flight suits for Blue Origin’s all-female crew), which will be released next year.
• The artist known as KAWS will be the first to lead a new artistic residency program at Uniqlo, which will involve events at select stores and developing new products for the apparel brand.
• Alex Moss, a designer of jewelry for the likes of Drake and Jack Harlow, opened a flagship store in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood on Monday. Located on Mercer Street, the store’s selection of accessories also includes leather bags designed by Mr. Moss.
• Handbags were the focus of a new trans-Atlantic collaboration between Strathberry, an accessories brand in Edinburgh, and Cinq à Sept, a women’s wear label in New York. The collection, released this week, includes clutches, hobo bags and totes in suede, leather and velvet. Prices start at $238.
• The LVMH-Prize-winning designer Thebe Magugu — the first African designer to win that award — is overseeing new retail and hospitality projects at the upscale Belmond Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town. Specifically, he is designing the look of a new suite at the hotel and is developing an on-site store that will feature African fashion, literature and décor. Both are expected to open this year.

Chatting With … the Costume Designer for a Hip-Hop Ballet#

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LaQuan Smith, whose namesake label is known for strong and sexy clothes, created the costumes for a ballet set to Future’s album “DS2.”Credit...via Shakira McQueen

LaQuan Smith loves a party. Nightlife is at the heart of the Queens-born designer’s namesake clothing label aimed at women who, as he put it, are “empowered” and “unapologetically sexy.”

“I always feel sort of inclined to design in a way where it gives people hope and it gives people optimism,” said Mr. Smith, whose over-the-top fashion week parties have burnished his (and his brand’s) image. “It’s really about celebration — whether that’s a date night, an anniversary or a wedding or, you know, dancing or a book party.”

Mr. Smith is bringing his joie de vivre to the Brooklyn Academy of Music as the costume designer for a one-night-only contemporary ballet performance on Friday, which is set to the rapper Future’s album “DS2.” Ahead of the event, Mr. Smith discussed his muses and why he is drawn to ballet in an interview that has been edited and condensed.

Your new ballet project follows another you did with the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago, back in 2013. What keeps drawing you to this world?

LAQUAN SMITH As a designer, it’s nice to be able to sort of exercise my creativity through the lens of theater or ballet or music or film. Those things excite me. It helps me go back to my base collection and be able to add something new, and broaden my product categories.

How did you merge the look of ballet with your own style codes?

SMITH I wanted to sort of dive into the classic ballet aesthetics, but also make it modern and make it really fresh and new. That meant infusing house codes like plunging V-neck lines, interesting cut outs, cat suits, bodysuits. It meant infusing these sort of dangerous silhouettes with more traditional tutu skirts and some of the more softer chiffon.

You’ve said before that New York is your biggest muse. What keeps you so rooted here?

SMITH It’s a part of my story. The grit and the glamour of New York, which is able to sort of mix the hard and the soft, has always been a point of inspiration for my collections. Being able to create collections in New York City feels like luxury. Keeping the garment district alive is important to me.

Yola Mzizi is a reporter for the Styles section and a member of the 2025-2026 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers.