Inspiration is a starting point for artists.
Fashion designers draw inspiration from a wide range of things when creating their latest collections: from people to places, art and music.
“Paris and Nicky (Hilton) were my muses,” Alice + Olivia designer Stacey Bendet told the Daily Mail.
‘Throughout my career, they’ve been my best friends and have a sort of posh vixen quality to them.
‘They’re so sexy and so sensual, but also so feminine and elegant, and that’s what I wanted throughout the collection.’
“Paris and Nicky (Hilton) were my muses,” Alice + Olivia designer Stacey Bendet told the Daily Mail
“My mother once told me that I dream about dresses. The collection is an ode to both imagination and what I call wearable couture,” said Stacey.
The alice + olivia spring/summer 2025 presentation took place at the Highline Stages in New York.
Guests were invited to enter the Imagination Hotel, a fantasy world that highlights the brand’s latest collection.
The performance featured music by Isan Elba, who performed hits from Paris Hilton’s new album, Bad Bitch Academy.
Paris was on hand in an all-black lace look by Alice + Olivia, while Nicky rocked a snake-print trench-style dress.
“I wanted to bring back romance and for women to see clothes as art,” says Alice + Olivia’s creative director and CEO.
The exhibition consisted of fantastic vignettes, each with a different aesthetic that transported viewers to another place.
From fashions to stage design, each vignette represented a characteristic print or ornament.
It included a lace library, a floral fantasy lounge, a decoupage dining room and a chambre de l’étoile.
The program notes say:
‘My mother once told me that I dream about dresses. The collection is an ode to both imagination and what I call wearable couture.
“I wanted to bring back the romance and for women to see clothes as art,” says executive and creative director Stacey Bendet.
The designer was inspired by retro silhouettes from the 1950s and 1960s.
“It’s a nod to the past, but at the same time it marks the beginning of the future. Women want clothes that are wearable and expressive. I want to create clothes that are always unique and make a woman feel as beautiful as possible.”
For Simkhai’s SS25 collection, Jonathan was inspired by his mother’s wedding dress.
For the SIMKHAI SS25 collection, Jonathan was inspired by his mother’s wedding dress.
The dress was made from embroidered silk tulle created by SIMKHAI’s late grandfather at his family’s lace factory in Iran.
The cascade of silk tulle embroidery with tiny silk flowers acted as the starting point for SIMKHAI’s spring collection, which features three-dimensional floral appliqués, hand-woven metallic elements, laser-cut leather and pleating techniques on dresses, suits and knitwear.
The exhibition opened at Edge at Hudson Yards, in front of a front row of guests that included Taraji P. Henson, Molly Sims, Suni Lee, Alexandra Raisman and Charlotte Lawrence.
The SS25 show notes read:
For SIMKHAI, her mother’s wedding dress has always been a staple of family history, often told alongside stories of growing up and falling in love.
SIMKHAI hopes to celebrate it and with your approval, breathe new life into that memory for herself and her family, allowing the essence of her dress and her time to flourish again.
The dress was made from embroidered silk tulle created by SIMKHAI’s late grandfather at his family lace factory in Iran.
The cascade of silk tulle embroidery with small silk flowers acted as the starting point for SIMKHAI’s spring collection with three-dimensional floral appliqués.
“This season was like falling into an afternoon fantasy dream, centered around the idea of dark, romantic glamour,” said Christian Siriano.
“This season was like falling into an afternoon fantasy dream, centered around the idea of dark, romantic glamour,” said Christian Siriano.
The Spring/Summer 2025 show took place at the Pierre Hotel.
“I am always inspired by fairy tales, from the classic folklore of a dark forest coming to life at night to Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel or The White Snake by the Brothers Grimm,” said the designer.
He added: ‘These worlds offer an escape that I wanted to emulate through a collection that balances power and strength with a sense of whimsy and elegance.
‘The palette reflects a moody night sky with hints of muted pastels, with textures like intricate floral tattoo lace, laser-cut vegan leather beaded to mimic tree bark, and an abstract sequined dress that feels like modern wings.’
‘I am always inspired by fairy tales: from the classic folklore of a dark forest that comes to life at night to Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel or The White Snake by the Brothers Grimm.’
‘These worlds offer an escape, one I wanted to emulate through a collection that balances power and strength with a sense of fantasy and elegance.’
Jonathan Cohen is always inspired by music.
For his spring/summer collection ‘Synesthesia’, the designer took his passion a step further with the help of science and the five senses.
Synesthesia is a neurological phenomenon that causes sensory crossovers, such as tasting colors or feeling sounds.
Cohen dove deep into the world of synesthesia and its many variations, including chromesthesia, a sound-color connection where sounds unintentionally create a relationship with colors.
Jonathan Cohen is always inspired by music, but for his spring/summer collection Synesthesia, he takes his passion a step further with the help of science and the five senses.
The program notes say:
‘In one particular reading, a woman described her experience in the orchestra.
As the music began, the woman was hit by beams of white light that slowly transformed into pink hues, followed by darker reddish hues that transcended into many shades of blue until it reached a crescendo and a radiant supernova of colors exploded in front of her eyes.
Finally, the concert ended and she sat in the darkness. Inspired by this vivid account, Cohen began designing his spring/summer 2025 collection.
In this season’s floral prints, Cohen sought to encapsulate this color journey, creating three distinct prints that represent his experience in the orchestra.
The two additional color stories in the collection address women’s experience of orchestral synesthesia from a macro perspective.
Both the colorful tweed and the diagonal tie dyes are designed with colors that blend into each other similarly to how the woman described the colors in front of her eyes warping and blending from one to another as the musical notes change.