Words by Teresa Tran
The biannual New York Fashion Week remains one of the biggest fashion extravaganzas in the world. For the Spring/Summer 2023 season, NYFW teased bigger surprises and twists than ever before, including new debuts, runway returns, and an introduction of menswear in a largely womenswear lineup. While some of the biggest standouts this season include Vogue World and the incorporation of tech-forward concepts like NFTs and augmented reality in fashion, we’re most excited by the sheer number of Asian and Asian diaspora designers who have taken NYFW SS23 by storm.
Here’s our quick digest of the designers, both debuting and long-established, you should be paying attention to, whose SS 2023 runway collections have sparked the most riveting conversations and championed diasporic and international talent, driving fashion storytelling and creativity to new heights:
LÙCHEN
Designer Lu Chen, a recent Parsons grad on her second NYFW SS run, opened fashion week with a runway show striking out against your traditional clothes presentation and instead marched to the beat of her own drum.
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NAEEM KHAN
Designer Naeem Khan said GOLD, GLITTER, and GLAM for next year’s flowers and sun seasons! And we couldn’t agree more.
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BAD BINCH TONGTONG BY TERRENCE ZHOU
Designer Terrence Zhou is one of my favorite up-and-coming designers, whose clothes you may have seen on Rina Sawayama’s new album cover and who debuted at NYFW this past week with a beautifully bizarre show.
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JASON WU COLLECTION
Designer Jason Wu is a regular favorite of fashion week. This season, he was inspired by the floral photographs from photographer Leonardo Pucci, which were then carefully placed on the garment by textile designer Ashley Miller to create one intricate visual across all seams and flaps, resulting in a stunning collaboration.
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SON JUNG WAN
Designer Son Jung Wan threw us back to the ‘60s and remixed the era with modern sensibilities, highlighting neon bright colors, rectangular silhouettes, upper thigh-length garments, over-teased hair, and patent details.
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PRABAL GURUNG
Designer Prabal Gurung knocked it out of the park once again, with this season’s bold collection featuring a deliberate un-doneness, celebrating the women who are often fashionably late to the party, but only because they had just strolled in from the club.
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SANDY LIANG
Designer Sandy Liang’s clothes had always unabashedly blended the uber feminine and cool downtown girl aesthetics to an expert level, and this season felt like an elevated version of that. If school dress code wasn’t a thing, I’d wear these outfits to class.
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ANDREW KWON
Designer Andrew Kwon was well known among the bridal scene, so it was incredibly exciting to witness his evening wear debut this SS23. Unsurprisingly, the intricate and beautiful collection fell nothing short of expectations and was no doubt bound for the most glamorous of fashion moments.
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KIM SHUI
Designer Kim Shui incorporated the traditional Chinese cheongsam high neck and pattern as one of the main motifs across her SS23 collection, with teases of ruched fabric, cut-outs, and translucence to boot.
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BACH MAI
Designer Bach Mai’s signature full-skirts were taken to new creative levels with this collection as they were complimented with contrasting metallics and threaded through with consistent pops of electric blue that all blended well together to enhance his theme of celebrating the “blue” of blue collar workers like his Vietnamese father.
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PETER DO
Designer Peter Do introduced us to his first menswear line, making it Do’s most grand and personal collection to date. Where his women’s collections elevated women in strong, clean cut lines and masculine tailoring, his menswear line soared with feminine back peek-a-boos, side-slits, soft pleated skirts, and K-Pop representation from SM Town that cemented this collection as the cultural fashion event of SS23 in my eyes.
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GAUNTLETT CHENG
Designers Esther Gauntlett and Jenny Cheng returned to NYFW with a bang after a long hiatus, taking to the runway (literally, the show was on an airport runway) with dramatic, romantic flair.
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NGUYEN INC
Designer Kim Nguyen’s SS23 collection felt like it was pulled from your inner teen’s deepest fantasy: your closest friends coming together, pulling clothes from each other’s closets and upcycling from the local thrift store, all while putting on a show for your loved ones. Cue the fast-paced giggling montage!
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VIVIENNE TAM
Designer Vivienne Tam took us to fashion’s new digital terrain with her SS23 collection titled “Metaverse, past, present, and future”—an interesting think piece for the future of fashion.
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3.1 PHILLIP LIM
Designer Phillip Lim rounded out the end of NYFW with a lookbook consisting of a meticulously-tailored palette of white, black, beige, and peachy variations of the primary colors—all perfectly cool for next year’s spring and summer.
Published on September 15, 2022
Words by Teresa Tran
Teresa Tran (she/her) is an American-born Vietnamese writer and filmmaker based in Atlanta, Georgia, with a background in theater and community organizing. She has a B.A. in English and Women’s Studies and a B.S.Ed in English Education from the University of Georgia and studied British Literature at the University of Oxford. She is currently writing and directing her own short films and working on her debut novel. You can find her on Twitter at @teresatran__.