Fifteen minutes into VFiles’s Barclays Center extravaganza, a performer asked the crowd if they were ready to “turn the fuck up.” The throngs of teenagers who filled out the back rows responded with enthusiastic screams, while the fashion crowd in the front looked up from their iPhones. You don’t have to be underage to get into the VFiles spirit—Real Housewivesalum Lisa Rinna seemed especially taken by the proceedings—but their shows focus on youth and spectacle. This season, that meant a fresh lineup of global designers and a partnership with the shopping app, Depop.
Chosen via a global search, the talents featured are already making waves online. Di Du, the Antwerp-based Chinese designer whose voluminous pastel creations are favorites of Gen-Z celebrities like Rosalía, had a strong showing with a sexy and subversively feminine series of body-con dresses.
Each designer was worthy of attention. Central Saint Martins grad Pierre-Louis Auvray’s wonderfully weird take on gamer gear saw consoles worked into knits or reimagined as armor. A cosplay fantasy brought to life, it wasn’t wearable per se, but it was imaginative and exciting. Wesley Harriott delivered gothic minimalism via dresses with strategic cutouts, voluminous trench coats, and rings that gave models razor-sharp talons. Nico Verhaegen’s deconstructed menswear took the conceit to its logical endpoint with reclaimed fabrics and artful draping that conjured thoughts of decay—for the Rick Owens- and Yohji-obsessed men in your life.
As always, though, there wasn’t much time to appreciate all this. Between an Erika Jayne performance, a mini-set from YG, the flashing screens featuring a “virtual assistant,” and plenty of Rico Nasty, the sensory overload meant it was hard to focus on the clothes. VFiles regularly straddles the line between music festival and runway event, but all the buzzy artists could have been saved for the very end. After an hour of nonstop fashion, the party could have devolved into a giant concert, leaving plenty of time for all the revelers to turn up.