Lauren Manoogian Fall 2025 Ready-to-Wear

Lauren Manoogian’s fall collection is as popping as her Nolita showroom was hopping the day I visited. This is a diverse offering that balances newness with continuity. “I feel like this season is a culmination of a lot of things that I’ve been working on for a long time that were kind of difficult and kept getting pushed [off that] somehow all kind of came into fruition,” the designer said.

The tying and wrapping Manoogian has been playing with for the past few seasons was back, more refined this time. Though not the stated reference, a hand-tacked, twisted blouse in a crisp woven looked like a take on the Korean art of bottari; those made in the softest knits flowed in a pattern reminiscent of the eternity symbol. Elsewhere the traditional twist was reimagined as a “gestural cable,” which was executed either as a stand-alone technique or in rows.

A “come undone” feeling was also created through carefully laddered knits. These, however, have made the fashion rounds for a while now; more interesting were the frayed edges of sweater hems and collars. To achieve such natural-looking aging was a challenge: “We had to figure out the right way to do it so it wouldn’t actually unravel,” the designer noted.

This is the brand’s first look book that contains menswear; these pieces were created for sale in Manoogian’s new store and modeled by her and Chris Fireoved’s friends. Adding a celebratory feeling was the introduction of color (gasp!) in the form of a warm merlot. A many-seamed, bias-cut slip had a touch of shimmer to it, as did a hand-quilted, smoking-style robe coat that someone just has to wear to the Met Gala.

Most interesting of all was the way Manoogian revealed the depth of her talent through garments that looked flat; Looks 2 and 43 are good examples of this. Both are made of a double knit with exposed seams that gives them a contradictory supple and almost paper-doll-like feeling. Lighter knits with white seams looked a bit like work-in-progress drawings, and indeed these garments were designed to be customized by the wearer—open or closed, buttoned in an orderly or an off-kilter manner.