TORY BURCH FALL 2022

A lot has been written about the pandemic’s effect on our wardrobes, most of it about sweatpants. But the shifts are more nuanced than that. We started clocking changes last year after the vaccine roll-out, in our second Covid summer. Walking down any street in the Lower East Side or Bushwick or name the neighborhood, you saw them: women dressed to the nines, or in rule-breaking mixes, or in very little clothing at all. The freedom of expression was what you noticed—not trends, but characters. Tory Burch has picked up on it too. “I see women in New York taking more risks, they’re more creative with the way they put themselves together,” she said after her show. “It’s all ages, and that’s something I really appreciate.”

Burch tapped into that energy for her new fall collection, which she set against a backdrop of midtown Manhattan, with red light from the New Yorker Hotel sign glancing off the runway, like neon reflecting on rainy streets. The idea, she explained, “was to give women a toolbox; I want them to feel they can take this collection and create their own personality with it.”

The variety was the thing. After last season’s laser focus on dresses, this collection had range; there were tech-knit track jackets worn with high-waisted, tapering pants and voluminous jackets and skirts reined in with dramatic belts.

Because a coat is all-important in a city like New York where we walk everywhere (in L.A. it’s your car), Burch doubled down on outerwear. Sasha Pivovarova wore a wool coat on top of a hooded raincoat. Bouclé coats had drop shoulders, for easier layering. All of it skimmed out on low-heeled mules or boots, another reflection of real-life chic.

There was nothing as predictable as a cocktail dress. Instead, embellished T-shirts were layered over jersey turtlenecks (turtlenecks being fall 2022’s absolute must-have) and Lurex-shot full skirts. Burch also paired embroidered bustiers and baggy pants in a cotton-linen shantung with day-to-night versatility. In all likelihood, it’ll be the lively colored geometric pattern jersey dresses—clingy, cut on the bias for ease—that become the collection’s big movers. For the days when the closet is too daunting, or there’s just not enough time for putting together a look, they’re a one-and-done solution for channeling a confident New York vibe.

Images courtesy of Tory Burch.