Tory Burch and Meruert Tolegen

Two contrasting moments in New York, from a power show by Tory Burch in the city's most important library to a poetic moment by newcomer Meruert Tolegen in a blizzard in Chinatown.

Tory Burch: Disorder in the library

The omens did not sit well with Tory Burch from the beginning. As the guests took their seats, a voice coming from a bank of speakers continued to silence everyone. It's never a good idea to tell a New Yorker to shut up, especially a New York fashionista (the chattiest of all the chatty classes).

Finally, after being told to remain silent 50 times, the audience took their seats inside the New York Public Library, a beautiful early 19th century building on Fifth Avenue.

Burch could be congratulated for breaking new ground with this Fall 2024 collection, although unfortunately he didn't find fertile ground for many of his ideas.

A series of cut-out, fringed dresses with sequins and tinsel had a certain pizzazz, as did a sublime split-wool coat dress in putty grey. Tory also picked up the new Zen for sheer looks, with a pretty cool burgundy red corset and sheer skirt combination, although this was reminiscent of Ludovic from St Sernin.

But the collection lost its way in a regrettable series of cotton skirts with strange spaghetti ruffles and some ridiculously heavy wide-striped coats that didn't really work. Nor a series of shaggy raffia coats or quirky nylon taffeta dresses with shamrock prints at the end.

You can't fault the front row of Uma Thurman, Natasha Lyonne, Barbara Sprouse, Awkwafina and Kathryn Newton. But this collection was at various points A Game for Tory Burch, in her time a great designer and the smartest American fashion brand creator of this century.

Perhaps, the soundtrack summed it up, that classic Joy Division song – Disorder.

Meruert Tolegen: From Kazakhstan to Chinatown

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Meruert Tolegen is a Kazak-born designer and an unexpected new voice on the New York fashion scene.

An art school graduate, Tolegen found her craft in fashion with a style that could be described as romantic expressionism. Especially with big ruched and ruffled black calico dresses.

She loves the floral prints used on voluminous silk dresses and matelassé coats, all of which have a whimsical feel. Meruert likes to say that part of her inspiration comes from growing up and playing in her grandparents' garden, and there was a sense of nostalgia for the former Soviet Union, seen in the coats, rural scarves and oversized hairpins of the Dostoevsky heroine.

Staged in a disused shopping arcade in Chinatown at the onset of a snowstorm, it felt like a moment of grace in the madding crowd that is Manhattan.