Naeem Khan | Spring Summer 2022 | Fashion Show

Pretend It’s a City, the Netflix docuseries featuring Fran Lebowitz and Martin Scorsese that became super popular during the pandemic, evoked the glamour of old New York, real and imagined. Naeem Khan also leaned on a similar trope that went even further back in time when he chose to present his spring 2022 collection, titled The Matinée Show, at Sony Hall to the accompaniment of a live band performing jazz and bossa nova classics. Guests were seated at small round tables, as in a 1940s movie. “New York is always there [in my work],” said the designer. “All that glitz…”

Khan played with Deco-era glamour a bit through his use of fringe, but in the main his work is aimed more at bombshell beauties (such as Veronica Webb, who was in attendance) than peppy flapper types. There were hints of 1970s Cher in some of the glass-beaded looks in black, which were, as always, exquisitely rendered. The overall mood, though, was of sunlit, seaside summers. “To me it was like taking a journey to Cuba or going to Italy,” said Khan. This getting-away-from-it-all theme was mainly expressed through hand-designed, proprietary prints, some of which steered dangerously close to those famously associated with Italian luxury brands.

There were full-skirted ball gowns in the collection, as well as languorous caftans, but in the main, Khan stuck to the body-close and skin-baring looks that define modern red carpet dressing. Unexpected additions to the lineup included solid and printed hemp jeans. A note attached to the program exclaimed the sustainable aspects of this natural fiber. By promoting it, Khan says he wants to bring eco-consciousness into the world of eveningwear.

Always ambitious, in March the designer launched a new venture. “What Christian Dior and everybody did with couture in Paris, I want to do that in America,” he stated.

Khan is an envoy between several worlds: ready-to-wear and couture; India and New York (and, increasingly, Miami). The challenge, he suggested, is how to be true to all of them. “This is my signature,” he said. “This is what my family’s made for a hundred years. I have to be loyal to that.”

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