One of the best things about this particular trip for the NYFW spring collections 2025 – my thirtieth year of covering NYFW!! (if these years could talk . . . and some day, they will) – is that, while I always only wanted to the attend biggest shows (Marc, Michael Kors, Oscar, Carolina), young fashion publicists I know and trust, like Savannah Engel of SAVI, turned me on to brands I’d heard of – but didn’t really know. Cause I didn’t really have to know. But I actually really did. One such revelation was Tanner Fletcher. I knew it was a duo, that their intent was genderless clothes – but I wasn’t expected a fabulously dressed crowd, so New Romantic they could have been at Area or Danceteria in the 80’s – nor pretty fabulous clothes – presented in a very fabulous way. Between bouts of structured quiet luxury (Ralph Lauren showed in the Hamptons on tk, with Jill Biden, Jude Law and Naomi Watts in attendance) and Boho chiffons and leathers, Tanner Fletcher’s looks managed to marry whimsy and charm with great fabrics, strong shapes, and best of all – bits of the new and old worlds. The dapper designing duo of Tanner Richie and Fletcher Kassell founded the “fluid luxury” brand in 2022 during the Pandemic, with absolutely no training. Their English countryside inspired spring show was a show indeed, from the fabulousity of the diverse crowd that gathered at a West Chelsea industrial building, to the all-white-walled multi room art gallery style loft in which thirty various fashion tableus played out. This goes with their major inspo: room design. “Start with the color palette (in this case, black, white and ivory, with a hint of pink and pale yellow), add in prints of toile and gingham, then pile on lace trim, ruffles, bows and sequins. All blazers – same ones for ladies and gents – are shrunken. The first and most striking tableau of a show dubbed “The Artists Dilemna”: L.A. painter Jeannette Getrost painting the strapless corset of a perfect all white 1950’s debutante cocktail dress, black – right on the straight out of Mad Men looking model. (Dylan Mulvaney was one of the models). Other vignettes featured an elementary school teacher sharpening pencils, a model polishing silver, one spinning wool – all spinning tales of life on an eccentric prairie in bloomers, a PVC trench coat, and toile, baby, toile. Sort of like a cross between Bridgerton and Kate Spade – intentionally precious pieces (puff sleeve satin tea length gowns) that honestly, could go anywhere – without feeling twee.
Count me all in.