This Is What New York Fashion Week Looked Like 20 Years Ago, Before 9/11 Changed the World

On September 10, 2001 Marc Jacobs presented a ’70s-inflected spring 2002 collection, which included nods to the color-blocked jerseys of Stephen Burrows and folky dresses. The show was followed by an epic after-party. “It was a crazy fashion scene because he had it on a pier and it rained and we were all standing in the mud,” recalled Jacobs’s fellow designer Kai Kühne, then of the label AsFour, in a recent oral history project. “It poured down and suddenly the clouds were swallowing the World Trade Center. We were like, “They are disappearing…” And then the next morning they were gone.”

Preserved in the Vogue Runway archive are many of New York’s spring 2002 collections, the last to be created before 9/11. They are testaments to a “before” time that now seems unclouded by fear. It’s still possible 20 years later to see hope and lightness in pieces like Donna Karan’s fragile and embracing white coat, Ralph Lauren’s lace frocks, and Oscar de la Renta’s eyelets. Helmut Lang’s lineup balanced utilitarian harnesses with pleated sheers and semi-opaque knits.

On the whole, the season was clean-lined and predominantly executed in black and white, enlivened with pops of orange—like the centers of daffodils. It was also distinguished by the mix of established uptown designers—Calvin, Donna, Ralph—and up-and-coming downtown talents including Miguel Adrover, Imitation of Christ, and Benjamin Cho. The spring 2022 New York collections are upon us and another new class of designers is emerging. Will they find inspiration in these collections of a generation ago?