New York Designers Want Us to Touch Grass (and Dogs)

References to nature in fashion collections — especially spring ones — are nothing new, but already at New York Fashion Week, designers are bringing flora and fauna to the runway in novel ways, and on a larger scale than your usual botanical print or flower appliqué. Collectively, labels like Rachel Antonoff, Susan Alexandra, Collina Strada, Libertine and Christian Siriano are reminding us of the joy Mother Nature has to offer us all, whether we buy their clothes or not.

Collina Strada’s Hillary Taymour explored this theme most explicitly with her Spring 2025 runway show, held outdoors at Marble Cemetery in the East Village. Models tread through grass wearing nature-inspired prints and hues; one pushed a lawn mower; another carried a small dog.

“In the intensity of this global election year, I found myself yearning to reconnect with the essentials—the simple, foundational elements that ground us and bring us comfort and joy,” Taymour wrote in her show notes. “This show is our little thicket. It’s a reminder to escape the distractions sprouting from our phones and reconnect with what really matters. Ground yourself. Touch grass.”

Speaking of dogs, they quite literally took center stage at Rachel Antonoff and Susan Alexandra‘s collaborative “Best in Show”-inspired runway that served as a reminder that, whether indoors or outdoors, animals are a massive provider of joy as well.

“We love dogs so much that we did a whole show in their honor,” Alexandra told Fashionista during an interview at the presentation. “We just want to make things fun. We want to make people happy and we want to be happy.”

Meanwhile, Libertine Creative Director Johnson Hartig dedicated the brand’s Spring 2025 runway show to the preservation of its physical location: the beloved Elizabeth Street Garden in Soho, which is in danger of being closed. Models walked through pebbles while holding various gardening tools. Attendees also received flowers and packets of seeds.

Christian Siriano went in a slightly more whimsical direction (as he is wont to do) with his nod to Mother Nature. His Spring 2025 collection, sent down a runway surrounded by thick greenery, evoked a Midsummer Night’s Dream. 

“This season felt like falling into an evening fantasy dream, centered around the idea of dark, romantic glamour,” he wrote in the show notes. “I’m always inspired by fairy tales — from vintage folklore of a dark forest coming alive at night, to Grimms’ Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel or The White Snake. These worlds offer an escape, one that I wanted to emulate through a collection that balances power and strength with a sense of whimsy and elegance.”

See more of these delightful odes to the natural world below, then step away from your screen and go touch some grass.

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Source: Fashionista.com