Conner Ives’s New York Fashion Week Debut Was a Love Letter to Home

You can take Conner Ives out of New York, but that doesn’t mean he won’t come back—or that he won’t drop little Easter eggs to indicate his plans to do so, like the “I Love New York” tee he wore to take his bow last season. The Bedford-born Central Saint Martins grad, who has shown his collections in London since graduating in 2020, chose to go Across the Pond (literally) for spring 2027, and the result was quite the homecoming.

A few days ahead of the production, Ives teased his debut New York show on his namesake label’s Instagram account with an image of a quaint body of water and a caption about how meaningful home has always been for him. “My work has always explored where I came from and the people I met growing up there. It’s grown to encompass a lot more, but home has always served as a cornerstone for me.” Other posts touting the show featured John Travolta as Danny Zuko in Grease, an American Victorian-era jacket from 1895 from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a 2004 snap from Costumes of Light by Peter Müller, and an iconic still of Nicole Kidman in a wedding dress on the beach from the 2004 film Birth.

What may have seemed like a difficult-to-decode myriad of inspiration ahead of the show, Ives made clear with the clothes he sent down the runway today at The Grill’s Pool Room in Midtown, where guests such as Kim Cattrall, Ivy Getty and Jessie Andrews were seated around a fitting centerpiece: a pool with the brand’s logo. The opening look, a mini dress decorated with floral chinoiserie and accessorized with a chiffon scarf that had delicate feather trim, set the mood. And if last season’s Conner Ives muse leaned into wardrobe staples—silk-robe coats (several of which could be spotted in the crowd), statement denim, polo shirts, and midi skirts — they arrived in New York with a closet full of options to go out on the town come spring.

In addition to mini dresses, Ives presented midi and mini skirts, along with weightless gowns in vibrant hand-painted rainbow-trout-fish patterns and rich pastel colors on a cast that was equally diverse. Lila Moss, Iris Law, Grace Burns, Hari Nef, Dara, Dominique Jackson, Terrence O’Connor, Yohana Lebasi, and Princess Olympia of Greece all walked—each one bringing their signature flair to the occasion. The outerwear, a celebrated category for Ives that has been worn by A-listers including Zoë Kravitz, Kate Moss and Sienna Miller, was updated this season in shorter silhouettes trimmed with fur.

The collection’s standout coat, on Moss, was paired with ribbed red capris and an updo that would look just as good the night it was done as it would the morning after. Also worth noting was the denim, decorated with black Victorian-era-style piping and paired with a matching crochet top and yellow heels in one look, and adorned with gold and pink beads in another. For his next sure-to-be-viral slogan T-shirt, following the success of his Protect the Dolls style, Ives sent out a red Bring Back Shame tee worn by Nef.

The mint green finale gown, inspired by Parisian dressmaker Callot Soeurs, was fittingly nicknamed “Lady Liberty.” It was exactly the kind of dress that would have spectators thinking, “I hate to see you go but I love to watch you leave.” The model who wore it played with its featherweight train, flipped her hair and looked back at the crowd longingly as she exited up the stairs. “This is a tale of two cities,” Ives wrote in the show notes. “The places I knew then, the places I return to now. And how much I’ve changed and how much I’ve remained the same. A flamboyant kid, who loves to put on a good show.”

“Flamboyance!” he continued. The flamboyance of a homecoming. The flamboyance of thinking your homecoming means something, as only an American would. The flamboyance of being flamboyant....It’s great to home.”

Here, a look at some of the highlights.