Area, the American luxury brand founded by Beckett Fogg and Piotrek Pansczczyk, presented its ‘see-now, buy-now’ spring/summer 2023 collection exploring the beauty and symbolism of fruits during New York Fashion Week.

The brand, loved by the likes of Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, and Ariana Grande, examined the different stages of fruits, such as grapes, bananas, and watermelons, as well as its meaning in pop culture to create sculptural and crystal-embellished pieces from a 3D banana bustier top to a watermelon strapless mini.

“When fresh and vibrant, fruit typically represent abundance, fertility, vitality, and youth. However, when in state of decay, fruit can stand for mortality and the cycle of life,” explains Area in its show notes. “We interpreted these concepts through various embroideries, embellishment techniques, metalworks, and construction through motifs of grapes, bananas, and watermelon.”

For the grape, which historically symbolised abundance, fertility, and indulgence, Area creative director Panszczyk transformed classic floral Chantilly lace into a sensual scattered grape lace-forming bodysuits and hosiery as second skins. Panszczyk also experimented with the idea of decay and frayed circular grape-like cut-outs in the lace by embroidering ostrich and rooster feathers around the edge to create bursts of distressed grape holes.

The most striking fruit on display had to be bananas, the fruit that typically symbolises sex, death, and freedom, with the brand referencing Andy Warhol’s sexually charged album cover for The Velvet Underground and Nico (1967) and the Banana Skirt worn by Josephine Baker.

Panszyzcyk turned the banana into an artwork of rich yellow crystal and beading with decaying brown spots in paillette sequins on plunging halter tops and cut-out minis, as well as creating a fitted pleated cut-out gown with flat banana panels, and fashioned 3D bananas made from black velvet and ombre denim with sculpted 24K gold stalk cuts.

Area also presented a 20-piece capsule collection in collaboration with Italian women’s footwear brand Sergio Rossi. The line includes sandals, gladiators, pumps and slingbacks in signature Area details such as feathers, crystals and bows.

This week the American colour institute Pantone presented a trend report for New York Fashion Week FW23. In it, cheerful, bright colours, such as menthol green and magenta, prevailed. Pantone contrasted the popping palette with five other more muted, classic shades, including deep blue and creamy white.

Over the past few days, the first examples of hues in the Pantone palette already passed by during New York Fashion Week. FashionUnited has made an overview of the looks so far.

Ten cheerful colours: from popping magenta to crackling kohlrabi

One side of the Pantone colour selection consisted of red and rose shades. 'Tender Peach', a soft, light peach shade, was seen on the catwalks of Tory Burch and Collina Strada, among others.

The more prominent fuchsia hue 'Rose Violet' and 'Viva Magenta', which was named colour of the year by Pantone, have already been featured by several designers. Dion Lee presented several silhouettes in fuchsia, and Carolina Herrera created a brocade dress in which fuchsia and magenta were juxtaposed in a baroque pattern, with dazzling results. Another commonly seen colour was 'Red Orange'. Carolina Herrera showed a plain ensemble in this colour, and Ulla Johnson played with different shades and textures.

Ulla Johnson also made trousers and skirts in 'Red Dahlia', described by Pantone as an "imposing shade of red". US label Puppets and Puppets presented rib trousers in this colour.

'High Visibility', a warm, joyful yellow, also proved popular. Carolina Herrera again went for plain, while Rodarte made a spectacular knitted dress that featured other shades of yellow besides 'High Visibility', each time in a different kind of yarn. 'High Visibility', a warm, joyful yellow, also proved popular. Carolina Herrera again went for plain, while Rodarte made a spectacular knitted dress that featured other shades of yellow besides 'High Visibility', each time in a different kind of yarn. Both Heron Preston and Tory Burch created trousers for fall 2023 in the colour 'Kohlrabi', which according to Pantone is a 'tasty green'. Tory Burch combined the bright green trousers with a jacket in one of the colours from the classic palette: 'Eclipse', a deep midnight blue.