American Fashion in Crisis? Not at These Shows

In the 1990s, New York fashion had the Big Three: Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein. Of them, only Lauren remains a fashion force. Klein’s brand now only calls to mind Jeremy Allen White in boxer briefs. A recent reboot of the Donna Karan brand, sans Donna, drew yawns. In their heydays, these designers set the fashion agenda for the United States, and to some extent, the world. But in recent years, many have bemoaned the state of American fashion and wondered whether its fashion week should even exist.

Crisis of confidence no more! This past week, several New York designers made compelling cases for a new era in American fashion, one ruled more by a rigorous approach to separates than splashy marketing campaigns. As the luxury industry slows its roll , designers here showed the value of playing it safe, with investment-worthy coats, work-appropriate tailoring and go-everywhere dresses. Of course, in fashion, “safe” might also include sans-pants looks and four-figure shearling coats, many of which were also on display.

“I thought it was a really strong season for New York,” said independent fashion critic Jeremy Lewis. After years of streetwear, irony and everyone wanting to be “extra,” he said, “It’s led to more sober and grown-up clothes.” Lewis, like many of the commentators and retailers I spoke to, named Proenza Schouler as a standout. He said that its “exquisite tailoring” was “relevant to a daily, city-centric wardrobe.”

The new energy around realistic wardrobing was visible in many collections, from downtown darlings Eckhaus Latta and Kallmeyer all the way up to megabrand Michael Kors. On fashion runways, it’s more common than one would think to see unzipped zippers, nipple slips and faulty shoes (or abandoned shoes, which happened at at least two shows). The most successful designers working in New York today—highlighted below—are the ones that are focusing on fit, integrity and a connection to their customer.

Altuzarra’s Calculated Whimsy

For his 15th-anniversary show, Joseph Altuzarra revealed his strongest collection perhaps ever by zeroing in on idiosyncrasy and eschewing influencer culture. To a room of about 100 editors and buyers, he presented unique looks with notes of equestrian culture, harlequin-inspired whimsy and Princess Diana polished quirk. Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, who styled the collection, said that it “felt like the kind of wardrobe we dream to collect over years of our lives.” That mix looks like: a pair of jodhpurs found in an attic; a sweater from Portobello Road; wool joggers stolen from an ex-boyfriend.

“People’s wardrobes are not merchandised,” Altuzarra explained about this way of dressing. “When you walk into your closet, there’s this feeling of eclecticism.” He wanted to emphasize that one-of-a-kind feeling. It’s creating a wardrobe, he said—not of basics but of “preciousness and emotion.”

It’s a strategy that could have a positive effect on the brand’s business, as fashion becomes, in Altuzarra’s words, “more item-driven.” Rather than offering an overwhelming array of options, he said, “I want there to be a unique proposition.”

Proenza Schouler’s No-Nonsense Manifesto

Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough have always made clothes for the women of their own generation, with muses including artist Olympia Scarry, entrepreneur Lauren Santo Domingo and creative director Jen Brill. They’ve followed these women from their it-bag and party-dress days into their 40s . Today, those muses (like many of us) are far more likely to require a bag that holds a computer and a warm coat they can wear for 10 years than a pair of super-high boots to pose in.

Liane Wiggins, head of womenswear for retailer MatchesFashion.com, has told me how crucial coats are to the women’s designer business these days. A good coat can last forever. You can throw it over a simple WFH outfit. It keeps you warm in today’s weird, ever-changing weather. Proenza Schouler’s coats, in hand-sheared shearling, leather and double-face cashmere, are superlative. Hernandez and McCollough describe them as “strong and soft layers of protection.” Which you will certainly need if you decide to try one of the brand’s more risqué sheer-organza tops.

Willy Chavarria’s Character-Driven Separates

Willy Chavarria, who cut his teeth at legendary American brands Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren, presented a sprawling show, including a short film and staged banquet recalling “The Last Supper,” in a warehouse in Brooklyn. Although his work is categorised as menswear, the show featured models of all genders, and a diverse range of backgrounds. The signature look—broad-shouldered blazers with nipped-ankle pants—would truly work on anyone.

While Chavarria’s collections have veered costumey in the past, this one struck a more wearable note. In his second season of wholesaling the brand, he said he was happily becoming more commercial. His cable-knit sweaters, camel suiting and aviator leather jackets are positioning him as a new-gen Ralph Lauren.

Michael Kors’s Pitch-Perfect Restraint

Although Kors sometimes gets a bad rap for being too commercial, his recent collections have had a smidge of an edge. Much in the same way that Tory Burch has recently gone from safe to cool, Kors is primed to reach a new audience with his canny sampling of 1990s and early 2000s minimalism. Unlike many of the designers that are mining that pared-back period, Kors was actually designing clothes back then. His work for Celine during that period , including straight knee-length skirts, animal prints and simple coats, is finding new lift on the resale market among younger women. undefined undefined So he’s smart to go full Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy for his eponymous multi-billion-dollar business. Shown in the old Barneys building in Chelsea, a temple of bygone chic, his dark skirt suits, pleated trousers and lace slip dresses felt convincing. And 50-year-old supermodel Amber Valletta, bare-legged with a leopard-printed coat and black pumps, is a contender for look of the season.

Sergio Hudson’s Unapologetic Power Dressing

As the Lox’s 1990s rap anthem “Money, Power & Respect” boomed from the loudspeaker, Sergio Hudson’s boardroom babes strutted defiantly down the runway. Hudson, a favorite of Kamala Harris and Michelle Obama, has built a solid reputation on monochromatic dresses and 1970s-inflected suiting. Hudson said that his vision was about presenting “that boss diva that we aim to please.”

This collection, Hudson’s most cohesive in recent memory, made me think that the fashion world hasn’t been taking Hudson seriously enough. Tom Ford, vulnerable after Peter Hawkings’s derivative debut last season, might do well to pay attention to Hudson, with his strong tailoring and unabashed sensuality.

The designer, who had attendees smiling and bopping in their seats, said that he aimed to “bring back the joy of New York fashion week.” And what’s more, “to bring back the great days when New York sportswear was held in high regard across the world. That’s been a bit lost.”

A sharp technology sell-off has exposed a new anxiety on global markets: whether the enormous borrowing behind the artificial-intelligence infrastructure boom can generate sufficient returns as interest rates rise and Chinese competition intensifies.

The artificial-intelligence investment boom has powered technology shares, semiconductor manufacturers and data-centre operators to extraordinary heights. Last week, investors were given a reminder that much of this expansion is being built with borrowed money.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 4.5 per cent over the week ended October 16, its weakest performance since late June. Semiconductor shares suffered an even deeper correction, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index losing about 11.4 per cent.

The selling spread quickly through global markets. Micron Technology fell 14.6 per cent over the week, while South Korea’s Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix dropped approximately 18 per cent and 24 per cent respectively.

This was more than a routine bout of profit-taking. Investors were reassessing three interconnected risks: higher interest rates, the rapidly expanding debt burden attached to AI infrastructure and the prospect of stronger competition from Chinese memory-chip manufacturers.

The debt behind the AI build-out

Artificial intelligence requires a physical infrastructure network of enormous scale. Data centres must be built, advanced processors purchased, power supplies secured and cooling systems installed before customers begin generating meaningful revenue from them.

Technology companies are increasingly supplementing their own cash with corporate bonds, syndicated loans, equipment leases, private credit and project-level financing.

JPMorgan describes the emerging funding model as a combination of conventional corporate borrowing and project finance tied to individual data-centre assets. In Australia, the Reserve Bank estimates that syndicated loans accounted for approximately three-quarters of data-centre financing during 2025 and 2026 to date.

The numbers are becoming large enough to affect broader credit markets. The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas has cited Wall Street estimates suggesting AI-related investment-grade bond issuance could approach US$300 billion in 2026 alone.

That borrowing is not automatically problematic. Debt can be an efficient way to finance long-lived infrastructure when future revenue is sufficiently predictable. The concern is that AI technology, customer demand and computing economics are changing much faster than the repayment schedules attached to the assets.

A data centre financed today may carry debt for years. Investors must therefore make assumptions about future utilisation rates, electricity prices, chip performance, customer concentration and the amount businesses will ultimately pay for AI computing.

When interest rates rise, those assumptions become less forgiving.

Inflation changes the calculation

September’s US inflation data intensified the pressure. Consumer prices increased 3.7 per cent over the year, ahead of market expectations and up from 3.4 per cent in August.

The hotter reading reduced confidence that interest rates would fall quickly and pushed bond yields higher. That matters particularly for companies whose valuations depend on profits expected well into the future, as well as highly leveraged infrastructure operators that may need to refinance.

CoreWeave has emerged as a closely watched test case. The specialist cloud-computing company has accumulated substantial debt and lease obligations to build AI capacity, while relying on a concentrated group of large technology customers.

Its shares fell sharply during the sell-off, while the cost of insuring its debt against default climbed. CoreWeave has argued that its contracted backlog more than covers its obligations and that financial markets do not always understand its business model. Nevertheless, its securities have become a proxy for investor confidence in debt-funded AI infrastructure.

Oracle, another major investor in AI computing capacity, fell 8.8 per cent in Friday trading, while CoreWeave dropped 15.5 per cent.

The question is shifting from how much AI infrastructure can be built to how profitably it can be operated.

China adds another source of pressure

Interest rates were not the only catalyst. Reports of advances by Chinese memory-chip producer ChangXin Memory Technologies raised concerns that lower-cost Chinese products could increase competition across the global semiconductor industry.

Memory chips are essential to AI systems, but the industry is historically cyclical. Periods of tight supply and high pricing can encourage rapid investment, eventually producing oversupply and falling margins.

The prospect of a well-funded Chinese competitor expanding its technological capabilities unsettled investors in Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron. It also demonstrated that AI-related demand does not insulate chipmakers from conventional competitive pressures.

That combination—slower rate cuts, more expensive financing and potentially cheaper supply—challenged the assumption that every company exposed to AI would enjoy continually expanding margins.

A reset rather than the end of the boom

The sell-off does not establish that the AI boom is ending. Demand for computing power remains strong, the largest technology companies continue to generate formidable cash flows and many infrastructure projects are backed by long-term customer contracts.

What has changed is the market’s willingness to overlook the price and financing structure of that growth.

The most resilient companies are likely to be those able to fund investment from operating cash flow, secure long-duration customers and demonstrate that new capacity will earn returns comfortably above its financing costs.

More speculative operators may face greater scrutiny, particularly where debt is expensive, customers are concentrated or expected revenue depends on demand that has not yet materialised.

For Australian investors, the lesson extends beyond US technology shares. Local data-centre operators, infrastructure funds, electricity suppliers and property groups are increasingly exposed to the same investment cycle.

Artificial intelligence may remain one of the defining growth themes of the decade. But last week’s correction showed that enthusiasm for the technology does not eliminate financial discipline.

The next stage of the AI boom will be judged not only by computing power, model performance or demand for chips, but by something more traditional: whether the assets being financed can generate enough cash to repay the money borrowed to build them.

Fact box

Nasdaq Composite: Down 4.5 per cent for the week ended October 16, 2026

Philadelphia Semiconductor Index: Down approximately 11.4 per cent

Micron Technology: Down approximately 14.6 per cent

Samsung Electronics: Down approximately 18 per cent

SK Hynix: Down approximately 24 per cent

US September inflation: 3.7 per cent annually

Estimated 2026 AI-related investment-grade issuance: Approximately US$300 billion