With gorgeous weather this past week, it was pretty fitting to find many of the Spring 2025 New York Fashion Week shows happening outside and scattered all over Manhattan and beyond.

The week got started a little earlier this year, with unusual (and unusually creative) rollouts from heavyweight names like Proenza Schouler and Ralph Lauren.

Stripe it up: Two days before NYFW officially kicked off, Proenza Schouler’s designers Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez held a show that could get people excited about fashion again. They sent out a bevy of very wearable looks with undeniably cool details —stripe-lined flaps, fringe, pleats, slashes, and uneven hems. There were beautiful knit dresses that could be worn just about anywhere, as well as gossamer gowns that were made for galas.

Horsing around: American icon Ralph Lauren held his production a day before the shows began — and ever so glamorously — at an elegant horse farm in The Hamptons, where show horses jumped in a training ring as A-listers arrived. There he put other icons like supermodels Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington on the runway, alongside many up-and-comers and some cute little kid models, all donning a mix of Ralph Lauren Collection, Purple Label, and Polo Ralph Lauren. As always with Lauren, things stayed classic: Think long skirts, blue denim button-downs with perfectly cut trousers, women’s cream-hued tuxedoes, and satin trenches. Meanwhile, no less than First Lady Jill Biden, Usher, Colman Domingo, Jude Law, Naomi Watts, Kacey Musgraves, Demi Singleton, Justin Theroux, and Kim Min-jeong (a.k.a. Winter, from the K-pop girl group Aespa) populated the front row.

Ferry godmother: Speaking of celebs, Tommy Hilfiger brought the house down with the sheer number he pulled in at his show, presented on the MV John F. Kennedy (a.k.a. the Staten Island Ferry). His front row included the likes of Brooke Shields, Staten Island native Colin Jost, Raekwon, Ghostface, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Jisoo, Damson Idris, Shay Mitchell, and Madelyn Cline, to name a few. The clothes were more lived-in and freewheeling than ever: crinkled shirts, loose lightweight denim. Light cotton plaids galore and so many deep V-neck sweaters. The show was closed out by Staten Island’s own Wu-Tang Clan. Yup.

Well suited: As for the Veronica Beard show, designers Veronica Swanson Beard and Veronica Miele Beard have done it yet again with a collection of clothing that feels as easy as it does luxurious. They also loved big, maximalist prints and showed fantastically cut and color blocked navy-and-white midi halter dresses, and tangerine vested suits with metallic button details.

Climate control: Jason Wu shows only once a year now — this year in Hudson Yards. And what he’s produced has been a showstopper. His full-length, black and cream belted shantung silk trench dress is simply a dream. One of the most stunning looks is his crêpe frock: folded in parts, pleated in others, traditional-yet-not-traditional in form, and definitely hazily Jackson Pollock-inspired in pattern. Yes, some were more one-season-than-another, but it’s a concept that might need to be considered, especially as we all deal with weird and unpredictable weather around the world.

Casablanca in the trenches: Remember that gorgeous, commanding jacket Michelle Obama wore in her speech last month? Well, designers Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia of Monse created it, and they’ve made a whole lot more like it in their forthcoming spring collection — albeit in different colors and fabrics. And patriotism was a huge theme in the designers’ show — with rugby polo shirts and actual footballs. But alongside those Casablanca-esque trenches, they also brought out glittering, fairy-like midi skirts.

A black & white affair: As anyone who follows New York Fashion Week knows, Michael Kors likes to be one of the last to present. And it was a study almost completely in black and white, with a few shades of grey. Corsets were abundant, as were boxy blazers and midi pencil skirts. One of cutest designs I look forward to wearing: a white-on-black blossom-patterned cutout dress that’s equal parts spring and serious.