Chloe Sevigny at the MYTH Presents Miguel Adrover “The Designer is Dead” Film Screening + Party during RTW Fall 2026 held at Village East on February 11, 2026 in New York, New York. (Photo by Lexie Moreland/WWD via Getty Images)
WWD via Getty Images
New York Fashion Week FW26 has officially wrapped, which means we can finally take a collective sigh of relief and stop hearing a certain subset of the industry recycle the same tired “NYFW is dead” eulogy, at least until next season. Sure, September may be the louder, shinier sibling, fueled by splashier invite-only fetes, a higher volume of A-listers occupying the front rows and the rare luxury of sunlight, but February moves differently. Literally. Picture this: stylish scenesters running late to shows, weaving down sidewalks lined with brown, litter-stuffed hills of slush while balancing in daring designer thigh-highs. Whether the majority of this season’s collections will linger in anyone’s memory is up for debate. But the most talked-about after-parties delivered what they always do: equal parts glitz and grit. You just had to RSVP strategically and know where to be, and that was downtown. For Fashion Week regulars, that fact is about as predictable as a fashion show starting at least 30 minutes late. Here’s what went down below 14th Street during another NYFW, which was as wide awake as ever.
MYTH Presents Miguel Adrover’s The Designer Is Dead Film Screening and After-Party
Paloma Elsesser at the MYTH Presents Miguel Adrover “The Designer is Dead” Film Screening + Party during RTW Fall 2026 held at Village East on February 11, 2026 in New York, New York. (Photo by Lexie Moreland/WWD via Getty Images)
WWD via Getty Images
If NYFW’s creative pulse needed a downtown proof-of-life moment, it arrived on opening night, Wednesday, February 11, inside Village East by Angelika in the heart of the East Village. MYTH Magazine presented an exclusive U.S. premiere screening of The Designer Is Dead, Gonzalo Hergueta’s documentary spotlighting elusive cult designer Miguel Adrover, tracing his meteoric rise in the early-2000s New York fashion scene before his abrupt retreat from the industry and return to Mallorca. The theater was a fitting choice, located a few blocks from Adrover’s former windowless East 3rd Street basement, where he built the deconstructed work that reshaped downtown fashion. MYTH’s Haley Wollens co-hosted alongside Chloë Sevigny, Stella Schnabel and Tramps Gallery, with the screening boasting the coolest guest list of the week, including Nan Goldin, Hari Nef, Paloma Elsesser, Telfar Clemens, Olivier Zahm, Derek Blasberg, Kelsey Lu, Lissy Trullie, Blu de Tiger, Sophia Lamar plus a roll call of Tompkins Square Park regulars.
After the film, guests flooded the ornate lobby’s concession stand-turned-bar as DJ Benny Beethoven hopped on the decks under the glint of a spinning disco ball. The crush of familiar faces evoked a circa 2007 night on the iconic Beatrice Inn’s notoriously low-ceilinged upstairs dance floor—minus the eye-stinging cigarette haze and the sight of shredded skinny jeans and an Olsen twin. Conversations overlapped in a low roar that only happens when half the room already shares a history. The open bar poured well past the credits.
Christian Siriano’s Rooftop Rager with Willa Ford
Bravolebrity Bronwyn Newport, in a Christian Siriano gown, joins the designer at his NYFW FW26 after-party at The Roof on the Lower East Side.
Andry Familia
A star-studded front row took in Christian Siriano’s surrealist, Salvador Dalí–inspired FW26 collection on Thursday, February 12, including Whoopi Goldberg, Leslie Jones, Natasha Lyonne, Julia Fox, Taylor Momsen, Uzo Aduba and Monica—to name an eccentric few. If the sculptural, gravity-defying silhouettes and organza explosions that pumped down the runway delivered a playful, empowering fashion fantasy—particularly with Coco Rocha closing the show in a liquid ombre bubble gown—that head-turning energy simply moved to the Lower East Side hours later. Inside The Roof, PUBLIC Hotel’s sleek glassed-in 17th-floor bar on Chrystie Street, the room was a blur of Grammy red carpet-ready gowns and rave-friendly pieces. 3D flower appliques, lingerie-forward numbers and armor-esque feathers added glamour to clubby sheer tops and statement accessories, from leather biker hats and fuzzy headwear to tiny metallic bags and tinted sunglasses.
The energy shifted from buzzy to breathless when The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City favorite Bronwyn Newport—who earlier in the day sat front row between fellow Bravolebrity Paige DeSorbo and actress Maitreyi Ramakrishnan at Siriano’s show—made her entrance alongside Siriano and his perennial muse, Coco Rocha. At the bar, a duo of designer-clad apparent Bravoholics squealed, “That’s Bronwyn from The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City!” as the trio made their way to the dance floor.
Lest we forget, Newport famously made her on-camera debut in that fuzzy Saint Laurent heart coat previously worn by Rihanna. (Fun fact: Newport was actually photographed hanging out with RiRi just a few days after this very party.) On this night, Newport delivered full gothy-glam va-va-voom in a decadent black floor-length lace Siriano gown, black lipstick and a severe slicked-back bob. The look lived up to her season five tagline: “The only muted thing you’d find in my wardrobe is my black card.”
The vibes stayed in a smile-inducing spiral thanks to DJ Ty Sunderland, whose set turned the heaving, strobe-lit dance floor into a nostalgia-spiked fever dream. At one point, the room tipped fully into Y2K pop siren mode as he fired off old-school Britney Spears and Hilary Duff bops, setting the stage for the night’s most full-circle moment. Through a haze of prismatic flashing lights, Siriano grabbed the mic wearing a “GET IN LOSER WE’RE GOING TO THE COTTAGE” T-shirt—a specific mashup of a Mean Girls quote and Heated Rivalry cottage lore this crowd of tastemakers needed no explanation for. “She’s a fucking icon!” he shouted before declaring the room’s mission statement: “And we’re all gonna be bad bitches!”
Willa Ford performs at the Christian Siriano NYFW FW26 after-party at The Roof.
Andry Familia
Then Willa Ford lit up the stage in a Black Swan-esque Siriano mini dress to perform a shimmery new track from her upcoming sophomore album amanda (out March 6), before launching into her definitive 2001 bad-girl anthem, “I Wanna Be Bad.” Tween, closeted me shrieked back nearly every word and lost my mind alongside basically everyone else in the room. It was the closest I’ve ever come to living out my childhood fantasy of being at MTV Spring Break in Cancun—just with a sea of iPhones overhead, gowns instead of bikinis and a notable lack of a foam machine.
“Putting out a record was never the goal. I was making music purely to enjoy the process of writing, which unlocked parts of me that needed healing,” Ford told me post-performance about releasing her first full-length album since her 2001 debut. “I wrote through it, and what came out on the other side was beautiful. All the broken pieces created an emotionally charged record! It was after we wrote ‘Disassociate,’ a song on the album about my seizures, that I knew I wanted to share it with the world.” When asked about the return of low-rise jeans and the relentless churn of Y2K trends, Ford stayed true to her bold pop goddess roots, opting to ditch the rulebook. “I’m done worrying about trends or what’s here and what’s back,” she said. “If you feel good in it, wear it! Own it! Fashion equals art. You are your own art, and there’s only one you!”
Christian Siriano and the downtown set were captivated by Willa Ford’s dazzling performance at PUBLIC Hotel’s The Roof.
Andry Familia
Framed by 360-degree panoramic views of the glittering city skyline, the evening was a full-throttle celebration of individuality that didn’t let up until the very end, when I found myself enveloped in a swarm of impossibly stylish partygoers at coat check. I suddenly recalled Bronwyn Newport’s iconic Season 6 tagline: “If my closet had skeletons, at least they’d be well-dressed.” Tonight at this Lower East Side rooftop hotspot, everyone appeared to pass the high-fashion housewife’s style test.
Evanie Frausto’s Showstopping SHOWPONY Debut and Soirée
The downtown set packs the front row for the runway debut of Evanie Frausto’s SHOWPONY.
Kevin Czopek/BFA.com
On the final night of NYFW, one of the week’s most electric moments unfolded on the cobblestone stretch of Thompson Street in SoHo. A tightly packed crowd of editors, downtown creatives and influencers gathered outside The Otter at The Manner on Monday evening, buzzing with anticipatory energy that had nothing to do with dinner reservations. No one was here for the raw bar. They were here for the runway debut of avant-garde hair stylist Evanie Frausto’s SHOWPONY.
Frausto, whose clients have included Lady Gaga, Sabrina Carpenter, Kendall Jenner, Kim Kardashian and Lana Del Rey, stepped out from behind the styling chair with a collection rooted in his early-internet emo origins. “This collection reflects my journey from a MySpace-era emo kid finding refuge online to a designer shaped by community and self-discovery,” he said. “Those early digital spaces helped normalize my feelings and made this moment possible.” Inside, velvet banquettes doubled as front-row seating. Models stormed past the bar and walls lined with glowing bottles, cutting clean paths through the room against a backdrop of vivid garden-themed murals. The layout was unusually intimate for a runway show, compressing the audience and action into the same shared space.
horsegiirL commands the catwalk at the debut of Evanie Frausto’s SHOWPONY.
Finn Crawford
Frausto described the collection as an exploration of “mammalian strength and instinct—wolves, gorillas and queer cowboys alike” and a tribute to the “real-life show ponies” in his community. “Designed for performers, superstars, dancers—and anyone brave enough to wear a hair jacket to the bodega—these pieces blur the line between costume and everyday armor,” he said. Subtle horn-like protrusions emerged from foreheads, and the moment every phone in the room shot up in unison came when musician horsegiirL appeared wearing her signature equine mask and a shaggy gray floor-length skirt with a sweeping mane-train.
As the runway dissolved into the after-party, the lighting dropped and the room loosened into something celebratory and slightly delirious. Then came my favorite thing I could have asked for on the final night of NYFW. Waiters circulated with trays of BLIP, essentially Nicorette for the cool kids from the same minds behind skincare brand Starface (the reason Gen Z-ers wear star-shaped pimple patches like accessories). It was the ultimate if-you-know-you-know party favor for a crowd that had been running on caffeine and pure Fashion Week survival mode since Wednesday. On this particular Monday night in SoHo, individuality was not just encouraged. It was the entire point. As Frausto put it, “Above all, this is a love letter to the freedom of becoming exactly who you are.”