Altuzarra Gets a 'Vibe Shift,' Plays With Gender Codes for Spring 2027

At Altuzarra’s Spring 2027 show, held Saturday morning at the historic Woolworth Building in lower Manhattan, the book waiting for guests on their seats (a longstanding NYFW tradition for the brand) was “Casa Susanna: The Story of the First Trans Network in the United States, 1959–1968” by Isabelle Bonnet and Sophie Hackett. Casa Susanna, a retreat in the Catskills, was also the subject of a recent Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition that caught the attention of Joseph Altuzarra.

“[It’s] about a retreat in the 1960s where men would go and dress as women and be their authentic selves. And I just loved the joy in those images, the freedom,” he said backstage after the show. “It reminded me of the naïveté of being a child during the summer.”

This spirit became the foundation of the collection, which comprised many ’60s-inspired silhouettes and details, but also conveyed a movement between masculinity and femininity throughout. “There was a central tension that was really about a traditional masculine 1960s working man’s wardrobe,” Altuzarra explained. “And then, on the other end, this idea of very overt, glamorous femininity, and how those met and the friction that it created and the tension that it created.”

While some looks veered more masculine and others more feminine, several combined elements of both: menswear-y shirts unbuttoned to reveal a bra top or paired with a silk skirt, Steve McQueen-esque Harrington jackets worn with voluminous circle skirts. Meanwhile, unfastened belts, unfinished hems and seams, cardigans worn askew and straps falling off shoulders imbued the collection with a sense of, as Altuzarra put it, “undoneness” and “patchworkiness” that felt different for the designer.

“There was definitely a little bit of a vibe shift for me [this season],” he said, although part of it was achieved by looking back at his earlier designs. “We were looking at a lot of the embroidery and print and silhouettes from those past collections and brought them back and amped them up,” he continued. “I also went back to a lot of silhouettes that I had done in the past that I hadn’t done in a long time, like more of a knee length, more of a slit as well, having more texture, more layering.”

The result was a collection that felt less tight or controlled than past outings, and instead more liberated, authentic and expressive — fueled by the spirit of Casa Susanna and its summer visitors.

See Altuzarra’s Spring 2027 collection below.