The Party Continues at Area
Fri 20 Feb
The AREA show at New York Fashion Week felt like a nightclub spilled onto the runway. Denim rubbed against velvet. Sequins caught the light like sparks on concrete. It did not announce itself politely; it slipped in sideways, already dancing.
“I love making commercial clothes and I like making crazy.”
Nicholas Aburn
Creative director Nicholas Aburn thrives on duality. “I love making commercial clothes and I like making crazy,” he says, and FW26 lives in that tension. This season spun around magic and glamour, not old-Hollywood polish, but glamour as spellwork. Controlling the way you look as its own kind of power. A little witchy. A little wicked.
Silhouettes leaned slightly off-centre, testing gravity. Hoodies twisted into wrap skirts flashing leg with a grin. High and low did not clash… they flirted. Dark-rinse denim formed giant bows. Backward polos and exaggerated rugby sweaters slung over shoulders. Velvet gowns draped part costume, part streetwear. Personal touches cast like spells: vintage silk scarves tacked into colourful sets recalling Aburn’s early foulard dresses. A navy hoodie, his daily uniform, reborn as a slinky dress. Not homage. Remix. The 80s pulsed strong. Lamé ruched into party armour. Ruffles spun from magnetic tape. Gold ribbons floated between clouds of tulle. Pop-Art sequins shimmered across separates, playful and deliciously surreal.
FW26 didn’t just offer clothes. It offered a mood. Glamour. Magic to zip, tie, or drape around your body. A little theatre for the everyday. A spell you can cast again and again.
Denim, always an AREA backbone, grounded the fantasy. Just barely. But nothing stayed still for long. Bows twisted. Sweatshirts wrapped. Lamé rippled. Everything felt mid-motion, mid-laugh, mid-transformation. FW26 didn’t just offer clothes. It offered a mood. Glamour. Magic to zip, tie, or drape around your body. A little theatre for the everyday. A spell you can cast again and again.