For his first ever presentation in New York Fashion Week, Heron Preston looked to the people of New York as the drawing board for his Fall 2023 Ready-to-wear collection. In the empty cement-floored venue, the show commenced with a gaggle of workers in construction vests airbrushing lines on the floor, one of which was Preston himself. 

Although the designer has been headquartered in New York since the inception of his brand, he has been showing in Paris since 2017. Not only did this show mark Preston’s NYFW debut, but it also marked his first runway presentation since before the pandemic. “My mission is to celebrate the people that make New York the city that it is,” said Preston on his highly anticipated show; and celebrating the people was exactly what he accomplished. 

The presentation was nothing if not a celebration for the masses, titled “Anything Goes,” with Preston pulling inspiration from everyday workwear as well as street style that felt synonymous with the uber-cool crowd of New York. As far as references to workwear go, Preston has dabbled in both explicit and conceptual manifestations; showing canvas firemen jackets with industrial hardware closures to a suit that was constructed out of Tyvek foam padding.  

Womenswear offerings were undeniably sexy, while maintaining an element of the workwear that was shown for men. Itty-bitty crop tops were held together by cording down the center, while a tight-clinging second skin racing jersey top was worn under a silk slip dress and accessorized with a soft leather barbed wire necklace.  Chainmail bra tops were another form of eclectically sexy accessorization, worn almost ironically atop a collegiate-adjacent crewneck sweatshirt, with a “STFU” graphic. 

Preston has most certainly covered a lot of ground for his Fall collection; and that’s exactly the point. From ski-wear to work-wear to club-wear to everyday-wear, Preston has encapsulated the spirit of the street and presented it in a potent collection that both speaks to the culture while simultaneously elevating the clothing into thoughtfully designed pieces.