NEW YORK

ew York Fashion Week has been shortened from a week to a packed five-day event. The change was announced following Tom Ford’s appointment as Chairman of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) in June, replacing Diane von Fürstenberg. The Texan designer has wasted no time since getting his new job. In addition to cutting the event by two days, he has also is on, with many designers taking the opportunity to dust off the codes that made American fashion iconic in the past. Some examples are Alexander Wang, with his collection-tribute to and jersey jumpsuits by Donna Karan, and by Calvin Klein and and by Ralph Lauren. Another homage to the stars and stripes fashion, this time coming from one that helped create it in the first place, is Michael Kors show with a Forties inspiration taken from Jennifer Egan’s novel ‘Manhattan Beach’. According to the designer, that decade was the last time the country was truly united. Women went to work in droves to replace the men away at the front and a in their clothing was almost obligatory. So, broad shoulders, and , , and , but also prettier, more feminine details such as , , frills and on and kneelength skirts. There is also a direct reference to the with star decorations and a red, white and blue palette. Other collections look backward in a nostalgia for the  and all its most symbolic representations: from boarding on trash made of , and and , as seen in the ‘neon rock opera’ by Jeremy Scott to the touches in the many coloured looks by Coach 1941, up to the for working women by Proenza Schouler. Waves of nostalgia, then, at times submerged by a covering the surfaces, heightening and for Anna Sui and Carolina Herrera or accompanying the intentional imperfections and puckering in Jason Wu’s elegant dresses. In general, nothing new under the sun from the New York summer collections, or at least nothing that signals a (constructive) break with the past. Designers are still dipping into the , ’80s and , which all had their own defining styles and even the newly-appointed CFDA Chairman Tom Ford, despite the desire for change, presents a collection filled with the luxurious that America is renowned for.