Colleen Allen Fall 2025: Conjuring ‘the Spirit of Irreverence’
A year into her brand steeped in tales of witchcraft and the feminine divine, Colleen Allen has become one of those IYKYK cases in New York fashion, but after dressing Charli XCX on tour and joining Moda Operandi’s “Most Exciting Designers to Know” series this week, others will likely fall under her spell.
Allen first gained her powers at Calvin Klein then The Row, two go-tos for minimal tailoring, which she perfumes with the timeworn quality of things you’d uncover at a Victorian estate sale. Allen’s focus on underwear, another link to Klein, adds potency to the brew.
Of course, hers aren’t your run-of-the-mill briefs. They’re crinoline bustle panties, which peek out from the backside of a velvety hourglass frock coat in this season’s lookbook. They encapsulated “the spirit of irreverence” Allen said she was after.
The designer looked to sage women who have weathered political unrest due to that spirit, leading her to performance artist Kembra Pfahler, who modeled in a few of the images. “She covers her body in paint and does these photo prints of her butt. It’s sort of this reference to Yves Klein who used women’s bodies as his brushes. She’s reclaiming that,” Allen explained.
Thinking about “embodiment,” colors embodied the characters in this story. Hence, another one of those fabulous coats in Yves Klein blue. Allen also cast celery green, (“beautiful, but gross”) and royal purple (“divisive”) for fleece drawstring maxiskirts and hooded tops with her signature hook-and-eye closures. Ivory played a supporting role in cotton nightgowns, silky bias slips and, touching on spring’s bloomer trend, a pair accented with antique lace.
If these weren’t exactly page turners, Allen hit a climax with a spiraling blazer dress styled chicly over lean trousers. Black and white sheer gowns with wisps of beaded fringe at the shoulders and skeletal ruching around the rib cage were also knockouts. These told a more beautifully sinister tale Allen should continue to write.
