Tory Burch transformed the atrium of the Domino Sugar Factory—Skylight at the Refinery is its official new name—into a pool, with walls and floor in aqua tiles. We were a dozen stories in the air and underwater at the same time, which is fitting because backstage Burch was talking about opposites: “power and grace, precision and freedom.” Maybe it was a case of Olympics fever—she said she was thinking about sport.
This wasn’t unfamiliar territory for Burch; she launched Tory Sport six years ago. Here, though, she was less focused on performance wear and more on aesthetics, from the shoes right on up. Across from the Vogue bench, Michelle Williams, Jodie Turner-Smith, Elizabeth Olsen, and other celebrities all wore fall 2024’s pierced pump (arriving in stores next month). This season’s shoe comes with a peep-toe and a sculptural “twisted” heel. No locker room flip-flops here.
But that exception aside, there were many athletic elements at play. The most obvious were the tank bathing suits and the drawstring waist karate pants they were worn with. Other pieces made subtler reference to sport, like the jersey dresses with contrasting shoulder panels that called to mind American football, and the stretch wool gauze shirts with the vertical stripes of rest-of-the-world football jerseys.
The most surprising pieces were the skirts with malleable wire waistbands, which arced out, rather than gripped the midsection—surprising because the waist is rarely an area that women want to add inches to. In contrast, the narrow flecked wool pants with full breaks over those peep toe pumps looked elegant with both shrunken quilted wool and silk jackets and traditional wrap jacket styles. The show closed with a trio of looks combining sleeveless muscle tees and softly draped and ruffled asymmetric jersey chiffon skirts that lived up to Burch’s “power and grace” concept.
Athleticism and sports are a running theme this week. The gutsiest move on Burch’s part just might be the return of the Reva ballet flat, the shoe that launched her business into the stratosphere way back when but hasn’t been seen on the runway in some time. Can she make it a fashion shoe again? She’s giving it a try with peekaboo logo Ts at the toes. Bold.
