The Row was by far the quietest fashion entity during the hullabaloo of couture week. So very quiet, indeed, that it didn’t ‘show’ its fall 23 collection at all. Well, not on walking people at any rate, but on rails and mannequins by appointment. No matter. What The Row has to say is always heard above any noise by the people who wear it, collect it, and can’t do without it.

Too bad that this growing clan (of men now, as well as women) won’t be able to see very much from the lookbook pictures. Due to the dark tonality of the fabrics, the cocooning drop-shouldered mass of shapes, the wrapping, and the whatnot, it falls to this in-person viewer to scream: these clothes are brilliant!

The Row might be the dead opposite of the skin-baring body-con trend du jour, and of anything at all social-media pose worthy, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not ravingly exciting fashion. If anything, this collection goes to an even further extreme of cover-up. With the exception of a single bare shoulder in an evening dress, there’s not a body-part visible anywhere.

The basic aesthetic is shared across women’s and menswear: drop-rounded, fluid tailoring in collarless suits and long, roomy overcoats in super-sophisticated double-faced cashmere and luxurious Japanese technical fabrics. Best seen in the menswear, the pants, voluminous in the leg, are gathered into pleats.

Look 14 , a beige coat, gives a good idea about the tonal scarf-wrapping that’s going on around the necks and shoulders of the womenswear silhouettes. In two looks, the scarves morph to become part of long down-filled coats. The idea of wrap-as-you will continues on the wound-about trails in evening dresses.

In person, there’s nothing schlumpy about these ingeniously subtle clothes. They combine elegance, comfort, and a reliable modern system for dealing with whatever winter weather throws at us. It’s very New York. No one in luxury fashion is doing this as well as The Row.

BY SARAH MOWER

January 29, 2023

Vogue.com