Wes Gordon built a winter garden indoors for his fall 2025 Carolina Herrera show, wiring 3,000 individual cherry red standing ranunculuses to the floor of an empty 48th-floor office space in the Solow Building with a view of snowy Central Park.
“It made me think of my favorite film, ‘Being There,’ from 1979 about a simple-minded gardener who makes these statements everyone interprets as profound and philosophical, and moves through life rapidly,” Gordon said during a preview, explaining that he wanted to design a true fall collection, with autumnal hues and florals, and the mix of innocence and opulence captured in the film and at the tail end of the ’70s.
That manifested in rich brocades, florals, jewel-toned lace dressing and foiled tweeds that Gordon managed to keep modern with light weights, simple silhouettes, bandeau tops and leggy hemlines. But even more newsy was a push into more relaxed and tailored daywear that would take a woman from lunch at Bergdorf Goodman to leading a boardroom.
There were a lot of fabulous knit dressing options, for example, including a gray mélange wool godet pleated skirt and twist-front turtleneck sweater fastened with a giant gold metal tulip pin, or a gold floral bullion embroidered black cashmere cozy crewneck over a tailored skirt. The house rose with all its handcrafted petals was even rendered as knitwear, sculpted on the hip of a fab garnet red flared knit-pant-and-turtleneck set.
Tailoring looked better than ever, from a classic gray suit with oversize hourglass blazer, to the more adorned deep u-front blazer accented by gold bullion floral embroidery, to a pin-striped jumpsuit with tulip embroideries. Capes, minidresses and skirts with sculpted gold buttons added to the wardrobing possibilities.
Evening’s flower-power looks and caped ethereal gowns were punctuated by some surprisingly risqué for Herrera sheer nude embroidered tulle dresses, which should be catnip for the red carpet set. And Gordon redid the famous Herrera white shirt in a completely fresh new way — as a trio of loose white tunics, worn over black lace cage skirts “like a row of soldiers,” he said. A charming one at that.
