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New York Fashion Week 2015: The Cheat Sheet – Metro US

New York Fashion Week 2015: The Cheat Sheet

Tom Ford doesn’t go to Fashion Week, he makes Fashion Week come to him. This season, the Hollywood favorite has decided to stage his Fall 2015 show in Los Angeles, right when most of the fashion flock will be flying from New York to across the pond for the start of London Fashion Week. But Mr. Ford is a smart man: With the Academy Awards coming up, he’s sure to get a bunch of big-name celebs clamoring to wear his latest looks for the big night.

Fashion is an industry that prizes youth. But it was a Celine ad featuring octogenarian writer Joan Didion that #broketheinternet and drove the fashion world into a frenzy earlier this year. Indeed, many designers have opted for more mature models in their ad campaigns and runways — from Dolce & Gabbana’s Italian nonnas to Lanvin’s mother-daughter pairs to Joni Mitchell fronting for Saint Laurent. Which makes sense, since middle-aged and older women are the ones who can actually afford to buy designer goods on display at Fashion Week (and they need more than a pretty face to woo them). May we offer a suggestion? Ruth Bader Ginsburg for Micheal Kors?

Though Peter Copping had been announced as Oscar de la Renta’s successor before the legendary ladies-who-lunch-loving designer passed away in November, he hadn’t expected to make his solo debut quite so soon. (The idea was to work alongside de la Renta for a couple seasons before going on his own.) Still, Copping has proved he can do swoony ladylike clothes as former creative director of French label Nina Ricci. The real question: What new ideas will he bring to Oscar’s singular, and particular vision? Forget Marc Jacobs — this is the most hotly anticipated show of the season.

Fashion’s most feared critic is back! After leaving The New York Times last January Cathy Horyn will again be wielding her poisonous pen — this time for New York Magazine’s The Cut blog — causing feuds, throwing shade, and throwing all manner of truth bombs on the industry. All of which should make the pre-show chatter at the tents far more interesting.

This season is NYFW’s last at Lincoln Center — which, with more and more designers ditching the tony tents for grittier downtown venues, is a relief. (Definitely saves on cab fare.) Yet, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows for Fashion Week organizer IMG: For one, it was actually evicted from Lincoln Center (oops!), and its new permanent home in Hudson Yards is years away from completion. For two, its losing its main sponsor, too, with Mercedes Benz announcing that it would be pulling funding for the event.

The fashion press may have ripped apart his first Paris runway outing back in 2012, but since when has Kanye taken no for an answer? So when a mysterious invite to a Kanye West + Adidas event started making the rounds on Instagram, rumors of a catwalk comeback started flying. Will the multi-hyphenate rapper show on the runway? Will he throw a party? Will he even deign to acknowledge New York Fashion Week after traipsing through the more prestigious Paris shows last season? Watch this space.