Backstage at his debut show at the helm of the brand during NYFW, the designer reflects on the power of fun and optimism, and how the collection channels the spirit of its motherland.
For a year full of creative director switchups, the Spring/Summer 2026 season is packed with runway debuts. But while most designers headed overseas (New York-based Proenza Schouler’s Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez to Loewe, ex-Ralph Lauren designer Michael Rider to Celine), Nicholas Aburn took the route less traveled – and is here to ensure the spirit of New York Fashion Week is here to stay.
The American designer, who previously worked at Balenciaga Couture in Paris, moved back stateside to take on the exciting and perhaps daunting task of envisioning the world of AREA beyond its co-founder Piotrek Panszczyk, who held the reins for a decade before his departure earlier this year. And this season, at the top of a glass-windowed high rise overlooking the Hudson River, we got to see just what that world looks like. Spoiler alert: it’s fun.
A celebratory debut, Aburn turned his inaugural show into a classic American pep rally of sorts – with pom pom bags, streetwear elements, high school archetypes, and a full marching band score. From the big game to the Homecoming dance, models made their way down the runway in basketball shorts and ‘confetti gowns’ (“ostrich feather-style construction, but with confetti instead of ostrich feathers”) alike; in Lululemon-inspired yoga pants and satin eveningwear. Pulling from what real people wear in New York, embracing the chaos of the city, and providing an optimistic escape from the often difficult reality of our times, the designer’s debut felt like a love letter to the American fashion capital.
“The game of how to create a tension between the kind of avant-garde or evening elements of the collection with [streetwear] was something that inspired me,” Aburn explains after his final bow. In the typical post-show buzz, a flurry of models and photographers rush out of the backstage headquarters, leaving behind the glitz and glamour for their everyday clothes. But for a collection existing at the intersection of theatrical celebration and the reality of city life, this duality felt less like an aftermath and more like an epilogue.
“The clothes are extreme, but they refer to reality,” he continues. Straight out of a coming-of-age film, each character that walked by felt like a (cooler) version of the kids you’d see sitting next to you in class, mastering that recognizable-but-fantastical sweet spot that makes television so entertaining. “Streetwear and athletic style is part of how people in New York dress. I just think that that’s how we all dress, and I’d rather embrace and play with that reality.”
“The big hoodie with the basketball shorts… I know that girl. I am occasionally that girl.”
The intensity of our times, and of New York City were reflected in the score as well, which was composed by Michel Gaubert with a heavy, building drum beat and a Whiplash interpolation at the end. “It is actually something that I conceived of from quite early on. The collection has changed, but the idea of the score kind of stayed the same. I really love the movie Whiplash, it’s a driving force for me. That kind of intensity and dedication to making something beautiful really energizes me. It was something I just thought spoke to the intensity of New York, the intensity of the times we live in, but still with a kind of optimism.”
“It’s a weird time and I think it’s a cool time to be optimistic. I’m really pushing myself every day to find the fun, and this work has almost been therapeutic in that way.”
Go behind-the-scenes…
Words – Sophie Wang
Photography – Madison Aycoth
Content shared from www.wonderlandmagazine.com.
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