“I’m slightly Y2K-obsessed, but not too much,” designer Cynthia Rowley said following her playful and feminine spring show. Rowley excelled by combining her business’ various categories — swim and surf, girly occasion and daywear, sporty leisure layers — into one collection that embodied wearable, optimistic and downright fun styles with just enough of a nod to the early 2000s.
The look: Y2K-influenced cute, sparkly looks from day to evening, mixed with matching swim, surf and puffed snow fashions. Early 2000s references came in the form of butterfly and floral motifs, chunky crystal jewelry and embellishments, and a girly, bright palette.
Quote of note: “Sexy! Sexy for sure, right? Haven’t we been waiting a lot of time to be sexy?” Rowley said postshow. “I just figured this is what I imagined what life on the other side would be. I imagined getting dressed — keeping the sportiness and all that — but getting dressed.”
Key pieces: Colorful, billowing kaftan and off-the-shoulder dresses; quilted, puffed sleeping-bag layers (as in a cropped jacket or pajama-esque sets); Y2K crystal-encrusted tight minidresses and tunics over printed and flared trousers or fluffed, feathered skirts; bejeweled sportif layers and seasonally printed wetsuits. Also, new 3D printed, made-to-order, futuristic wedges, which Rowley explained were the result of trying to find a more sustainable and manageable solution to her current shoe business.
The takeaway: Spring was one of Rowley’s most cohesive collections in recent seasons and a celebratory return to New York Fashion Week with happy, girly fashions and an idyllic, sunset Lady Liberty-view from the tip of Manhattan’s Wagner Park.
