Day three, and we're deep inside the bowels of New York Fashion Week. As the city chill is broken up by some of our most-loved designers debuting their Fall Winter 2022 collections, our eyes are firmly fixed on cult favourite Khaite and it's FW22 show.
We're back in a warehouse, the harsh light casting everything from attendees to runway in a pale blue mist, like dawn breaking after a night of debauchery. The slow shimmer of a tambourine ushers in the sound of The End by The Doors. As always, the Khaite FW22 collection is smouldering at the edges with the slick promise of sex.
Mica Argañaraz opens the show armoured in a leather coat and skirt ensemble. Tailoring nods to the 80s with boxy, exaggerated shoulders and skirts belted around the waist and teetering on mid thigh. Sheer black stockings are paired with open toe sandals and are a moment away from being ravaged by ladders. Hair is oiled up and tucked behind ears or braided into cornrows.
Nightlife remains the central focus of this collection, mesh floor length gowns bedazzled with crystals simply say so, and as New York City's own begins to find its feet again, we can't help but feel as though Khaite is shepherding in a wardrobe for the quintessential New York woman to slither from club to club in. Puffer jackets are thrown over mermaid dresses and aviator bombers cover up skimpy mini dresses. For good measure wayfarers make a steady appearance, since you're going to need them at 6am in the morning to hide your bleary eyes on the subway home.
Overall the collection is a monochromatic feast, save for later looks where drapey dresses with padded shoulders and teeny skirts arrive in violet and champagne-coloured sheer blouses and fishtail dresses drip with a 60s and 70s rock sensibility. As the soundtrack becomes edgier, steelier, with It's All Over Now Baby Blue by Them and Nirvana's cover of Where Did You Sleep Last Night, so too do the looks. Fringe skirts dance around the ankles whereas leg slits shimmy up bare thighs, driving home the air of sex. Now is the time of the aloof, out-of-reach leather clad fox after two long years of caring so much. And with the indie sleaze revival upon us, Khaite FW22 feels like a more elevated take with its alternative rock undertones.
Road to Nowhere by Talking Heads echoes outward as we drink in the finale of looks, it's a music choice that makes note of the absurdist mood of our time, and a night out coincidentally, as though the models had tugged off their stoic mask with a laugh and an expression that says "just kidding".
If night time is all that is left, let us be swallowed up by it dressed in Khaite FW22.
