Tory Burch's Power Era at New York Fashion Week

NEW YORK – Ready or not, Tory Burch has entered her power era.

Down in Isamu Noguchi’s Sunken Garden in downtown Manhattan, she staged a New York Fashion Week show that felt anything but underground. It was tight, confident, and loaded with star wattage, the latest chapter in her ongoing reinvention as one of America’s most compelling designers.

Lauryn Hill arrived as if summoned by the soundtrack itself, seated front and center with daughter Sara Marley and niece Kymora Marley. Amanda Seyfried slipped into her seat nearby, joined by “Saturday Night Live” alum Chloe Fineman and fashion’s ultimate arbiter, Anna Wintour. Rising tennis name Alex Eala, fresh from her US Open run that ended against close friend Iva Jovic, took her place among the mix of new talent and established names, alongside Ravyn Lenae, Padma Lakshmi and director Janicza Bravo.

Hill, wrapped in oversized sunglasses, an olive-green cinched top and tiered skirt, and a silk scarf draped lightly over her head, became the gravitational center of the front row. Cameras snapped relentlessly. On her lap sat one of the night’s stealth stars: Burch’s new Bunny Knot bag, in butter yellow with dark knot detailing that read like playful polka dots. The same bag perched on the arms of nearly everyone in the front row, a quiet signal of where Burch’s accessories machine is heading.

The soundtrack set the tone. Burch opened with Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising,” a raw, slightly ominous choice, before sliding into Enya’s “Boadicea” – the haunting instrumental famously sampled by Hill and The Fugees on “Ready or Not” from their 1996 album “The Score.” The reference was unmistakable, a neat loop between music, muse and moment. An hour later, the same track surfaced at the Public School show in Chelsea, but by then Burch had already claimed it.

She knows how to use a space, too. The last time Burch worked in a sculptural, circular setting – her September 2023 show at the Gilder Center at the American Museum of Natural History – she kicked off what’s now being called the “Tory-ssance,” steering the brand toward a cooler, sharper, more downtown energy. This new collection pushed that evolution forward.

On the first official day of New York Fashion Week, Burch pulled off something designers joke about but rarely achieve: she made florals for spring feel new. The flowers came in unexpected color clashes – lavender with teal, aubergine with emerald green – worked into embroidery and garlands that echoed gajra, the floral strings often worn in hair, here draped around the neck or carried like an accessory alongside a bag.

Color did a lot of the talking. Butter yellow rubbed shoulders with deep grays. Kelly green collided with eggplant purple. One standout: a golden brown textured jacket that seemed to bloom off the body, like a plant caught mid-flourish. Burch’s familiar draped bodices reappeared, but this time they broke into freer, more fluid skirts, less prim, more alive.

Emily Ratajkowski, a recurring face in Burch’s runway universe, strode out in a slightly sheer navy tank with red detailing, paired with a matching pleated navy midi skirt and a brown medallion belt. It was clean, unfussy, and quietly powerful – the kind of look that lands in wardrobes, not just mood boards.

In her show notes, Burch distilled the thesis: “Opulent femininity meets American pragmatism, seen through the collector’s eye.” The spring/summer 2027 collection, she wrote, “explores the psychology of how women pull things together. They want beauty, utility, and humor – the joy of getting dressed.”

On this night, in a sunken garden filled with stars, she gave them exactly that – and made it clear she has no intention of slowing the Tory-ssance down.