‘Kamala couture’ is a great fit at New York Fashion Week

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The most popular accessory at N.Y. Fashion Week was support for Kamala Harris.

NEW YORK – The election was clearly on the minds – and bodies – of people attending New York Fashion Week.

Designer Prabal Gurung sent a coconut tree minidress down the runway. There were “Cat Lady” sweaters at the Batsheva presentation. Jenna Lyons, “Real Housewives of New York” star and former J. Crew creative director, sported the camouflage Harris/Walz hat throughout the week. The label Area showed a “Bans Off Our Bodies” T-shirt with two red hands that appeared to be grabbing a model where her ovaries would be. At Michael Kors, theater producer Jordan Roth toted a navy-blue Harris/Walz purse that, he later explained on social media, was “An Amazon clutch with a bumper sticker on it.”

It was “the accessory of the fall,” he declared. “Kamala couture.”

The prospect of dressing a potential Madam President seems to have energized many of the designers and celebrities who frequent Fashion Week. Political references – some subtle, some overt – graced the runways and the sidewalks of New York.

Some of the week’s boldfaced names were the reference. For example: If you walked into a show with abundant security, including a few men and women in unfashionable suits eyeing you and the perimeter, that meant the vice president’s stepdaughter was there. Ella Emhoff, who has been modeling ever since the fashion world fell in love with her at the Biden-Harris inauguration in 2021, walked the runway for Monday’s Coach show at the High Line in an “I N.Y.” T-shirt, leather miniskirt, black blazer, baseball cap and heels.

Emhoff, with Secret Service detail in tow, made several appearances throughout the week. There she was, in a custom denim jacket in the New York Public Library, celebrating the relaunch of J. Crew’s catalogue. There she was at the Susan Alexandra and Rachel Antonoff show, for which adoptable shelter dogs tail-wagged down the runway. There she was at Tory Burch, at Collina Strada, at Sandy Liang, at Proenza Schouler.

Her itinerary did not intersect with that of first lady Jill Biden, who was also making the Fashion Week rounds: First at Ralph Lauren’s show in Bridgehampton, then at Friday’s “Fashion For Our Future” march, for which designers, models and brand employees sashayed down Broadway in matching Zac Posen-designed Old Navy T-shirts that encouraged people to vote.

For whom, they would not say. It was branded as a nonpartisan march, but it was also a non-nonpartisan march; the industry, given its heavily female and LGBTQ representation, tends to vote a certain way. One of the march’s sponsors was Vogue, whose editor, Anna Wintour, had days earlier co-hosted a Harris fundraiser in Southampton with one of the rally’s speakers, designer Aurora James, who is also famous for designing the “Tax the Rich” gown that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wore to the Met Gala in 2021.

The very next day, James hosted another gathering: the Fashion Week edition of “Hotties for Harris,” a party for young, cool supporters that popped up for the first time during the Democratic National Convention. The space was full of Instagrammable tableaus for guests (including actress Natasha Lyonne and socialite Lauren Santo Domingo): a “Wall of Weirdos” and “Hall of Hotties” featuring portraits of Republicans and Democrats, respectively; a room fitted to look like a 70s basement, with an ugly couch labeled “Property of JD Vance.” Prints of artist Shepard Fairey’s “Forward” poster of the vice president were the party favor. Spotted in double denim, near the bar serving “Madam President’s spicy ’rita” was Ivanka Trump’s sister-in-law, model Karlie Kloss.

Co-host Eva Chen, former editor in chief of Lucky Magazine, was showing James some “Brat”-green Harris/Walz buttons her kids had made. She pulled one out of her purse.

“Is it magnetic? I only do a magnetic pin,” said James, who, to be fair, was wearing a sheer, ruffly black blouse that would be easily snagged (she later changed into an olive-green “Hotties for Harris” shirt).

Asked what she thinks Harris should wear to her inaugural ball, Chen replied that she “would love to see her in an independent designer.” She mentioned a show by the designer Willy Chavarria, which she had seen earlier that day. “I think he represents a vision and a voice for a new America. I’d love to see her in a Willy creation. I feel like Prabal Gurung has a really great streak with dressing first ladies and also women in politics in general.”

Chavarria’s show was among the most overtly political of the week. The theme was “América” – our country, as seen through an immigrant’s eyes. Small copies of the U.S. Constitution had been placed on every seat.

“I thought it was a good idea that we each get one in our possession so we can check it now and then to make sure things are happening as they should,” Chavarria said backstage after the show. The clothes were inspired by laborers and blue-collar workers; Chavarria emerged after the models’ final walk wearing an ACLU T-shirt. Another party favor were red, white and blue stickers that read “Willy says vote.”

A different perspective on America came from Wednesday’s Ronald van der Kemp show. The Dutch-born designer dressed several of his models in campy red, white and blue garb from his 2008 collection and sent them down the runway in complete silence with no backing soundtrack. Those clothes were created in a different America than the one they had resurfaced in now. Still, it was optimistic: The show ended with a musical cue: Patrick Juvet’s 1978 disco track “I Love America.”

Nostalgia! Two days earlier, Old Navy – another brand known for its flag-themed attire – hosted, along with The Cut, a 1994-themed party at Webster Hall. On the bill: Ja Rule, En Vogue, and onetime boy wonders Hanson (you remember “MMMBop,” of course). The first to walk the red carpet was Posen, Old Navy’s chief creative officer.

Seeing everyone wearing his “Fashion For Our Future” T-shirts was “an incredibly proud moment,” said Posen, in a green Old Navy track jacket. “I’ve never seen such camaraderie of the New York creative designer community in my life.” Asked how fashion was playing a role in the election this year, he took a step back and shook a finger impishly, declining to comment.

Instead of asking the brothers Hanson (Isaac, now 43; Taylor, 41; Zac, 38) about politics and fashion, we ask them about nostalgia and fashion. They are now approaching middle age, with children who are rediscovering the fashion of when their hits were biggest. The brothers were playing a party celebrating a year that predated the birth of many of its guests. Singing a song they wrote in the throes of puberty, about the passage of time and growing old – what does that feel like?

“When what is old is now new, it’s kind of fun,” said Taylor Hanson. “You get the chance to reinvent and play with it.”

It may have been the year the first Old Navy store opened, but 1994 was the year that another big launch took place in the Bay Area. A young Kamala Harris, then deputy district attorney of Alameda County, began to rise in the ranks of California politics.

We’re just MMMbopping our way inexorably toward our uncertain fate Nov. 5, which isn’t a lot of time.

“There is something incredibly immediate about this election,” said “Saturday Night Live” star Bowen Yang at J. Crew’s catalogue fete on Thursday. Voters are “processing things through images. And what sort of more immediate delivery system is there for imagery than fashion?” Asked which campaign moment he would have wanted to spoof had SNL not been on summer hiatus, he replied without hesitation: “JD Vance at the doughnut shop.”

What about after Nov. 5? For a vision of what that could be like, we look to Sergio Hudson.

There was nothing political about Hudson’s spring collection, other than its subtext. Hudson makes suiting and gowns for strong, powerful women like the vice president, who wore his label to her 2021 inauguration (Michelle Obama wears his clothes, too). So watching Hudson’s runway show felt like a little preview: If she won, would Harris wear one of these suits to her swearing-in? Maybe the blue pinstripes, or the silvery-gray power suit. Or maybe the navy sequined gown, for an inaugural ball. One of his models even looked like a younger version of Harris. It’s worth noting that his final look – many designers send a showstopper gown last to make a final impression – was a sleek, simple lavender suit.

But enough of the vague allusions to Harris, the open-ended reminders to vote. What about a designer who wants to make a direct and actionable point?

For that, we go to Libertine, the Los Angeles brand founded by Johnson Hartig. Hartig decided to stage his show in the Elizabeth Street Garden, a tiny, manicured oasis of green in Nolita. The city-owned spot has recently been singled out for partial demolition to build affordable housing. Supporters of the garden say that there are other sites that can be used for housing, that gardens are rare and worthy of preservation.

Libertine’s outdoor show, whose guests included Martha Stewart and designer Thom Browne, carried the garden theme forth on the runway, with floral and skyscraper-print outfits, and models walking the runways with wheelbarrows and spades.

At the conclusion, the models re-emerged to the tune of Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi,” holding Libertine-branded protest signs – equal parts statement, prop and accessory. Led by Hartig, they paraded through the garden – no twisted ankles from stilettoes on gravel paths, thankfully – holding signs that said “Save the garden” and “Trees are life.”

It may still have been too late. The city can evict the garden at any moment. But it was both beautiful and actionable. And a reminder of an adage that applies to Fashion Week as well: All politics is local.