Proenza schouler ss27
New York City | 09.10.2026 | 12 p.m. EST
Today, Proenza Schouler’s show surprised me. Having a new designer like Rachel Scott be introduced to a luxury house like Proenza almost always starts off rough and leads to small brand identity discrepancies, like the ones we saw with the last show. Instead of melodramatic crazy patterns and mixes of colors and textures, I recognized a cohesion that I hadn’t yet seen with Rachel Scott; I enjoyed seeing that authenticity.
There was a bold aspect to this show that seamlessly combined practicality and a twinge of high art. I admired the theme—focusing on the everyday lives of New York women and giving attention to the fluid lifestyle and freedom they embody. It was what luxury fashion SHOULD focus on: experimentation, culture, and craftsmanship. Every look felt uniquely different while still falling under a common umbrella, ranging from red sequins to sheer blouses, and yet they still maintained their own idiosyncratic, captivating qualities. To describe this show with just a scenario, I would say it felt like dancing freely in a Breakfast at Tiffany’s-style oversized shirt with a tall glass of wine just before the delirious stage hits. After a big breakup with the lights dimmed down, and an intention to be the most intentional version of yourself.
At a glance, I definitely saw an abundance of prints and patterns this show—it reminded me of Miuccia Prada’s first debut shows. This time, the innovative schemes felt far more cohesive than prior shows and less of an avant-garde train wreck. The colors radiated a darker Byronic springtime aesthetic, giving the pieces less of an ethereal pastels-and-florals runway than I often see for the Spring/Summer shows.
Although I do think that the creativity that this show brought was delightful, the different looks felt slightly ambiguous and undecided. Everything adhered to the theme, although the theme of the show was too broad to actually encompass the elegance that luxury fashion is known for. Having a luxury fashion show that focuses on everyday people felt like an oxymoron; it is an impossible attempt to make the desirability of luxury fashion and what an average New York woman wears on the daily synonymous. It’s basic supply and demand—if you model your show off of what everyone already is, then it diminishes the interest in it.
Look at Balenciaga’s homeless theme right now—nobody with true style would ever wear any of these trashy plastic so-called “designer” pieces out of their house—and putting a $3,000 price tag on an item that was clearly made in a factory in China and took 2 minutes to construct is outrageous. Honestly, besides the moody spring aesthetic I saw throughout this show, I didn’t see anything “new.” The body shapes felt like an understatement and overly familiar. Instead of using the human body as the easel for fabric, it felt like the bodies were concealed, and for a show that is supposed to be appreciating women, sometimes it felt a lot more like the clothing was trying to swallow them instead of display them.
I couldn’t detect a noticeable pattern with the shapes throughout the show; the clothes darted between drawing my attention all over the different areas that Scott emphasized in each piece. To summarize—some parts felt bland and unresolved.
My favorite look:
LOOK 10 — ★★★★★
A blue shin-length, printed dress
The blue-squared, printed dress was perhaps this show’s most convicting moment. I felt as though, out of every look that this collection had to offer, this dress stood out as the most true to the theme while still being a fitting representation for a refined fashion house such as Proenza Schouler.
One detail I noticed in particular was the shoe choices. Everyone was wearing sandals, peculiarly. Who in their right mind would ever wear a tailored red suit with flip-flops? If this aspect was meant to represent what a poorly dressed associate would style together, then it truly hit the spot—not to mention, how pedestrian and predictable of a choice is this when sandals are the trend right now among teenagers to wear to school. Was that the objective of the show today, to encompass the lives of “Teenagers Wear Daily?”
FROM THE ARCHIVE: The collection used slightly familiar fabrics, such as the print in Look 10 that I mentioned—alluding to past fashion pieces but not directly borrowing from. Additionally, the most notable nod to the preceding designers was the re-adoption of the renowned PS1 bag, just in slouchier form.
THE VERDICT — 7.3/10
Beautiful execution and attention to detail, banal theme. The diversity was something I could appreciate, but it also took away the element of authority in a fashion show that I seek out.
