Valerie Steele, Director of The Museum at the FIT in New York: “What Is the Look of a Fashion House Anymore?”

In New York, where fashion month kicked off in September, the debate takes on another dimension. Long regarded as the most commercially driven of the major fashion capitals, the city is nurturing a new generation of designers whose influence extends well beyond American runways. Some are already being tapped to lead established fashion houses. For Valerie Steele, a fashion historian and one of the industry's foremost intellectual voices, it is precisely this ability to foster emerging talent that keeps New York relevant.

As Director and Chief Curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), Valerie Steele has spent decades observing the evolution of fashion design and the institutions that shape it. In this interview with Luxury Tribune, she reflects on the vitality of New York's fashion scene, the increasingly complex relationship between fashion houses and museums, and what she sees as the growing confusion surrounding the rapid turnover of creative directors.

Valerie Steele. People tend to think that New York is just a commercial fashion Week and doesn't really create anything new. Yes, the shows particularly in Paris tend to be more creative and artistic, but New York has a very diverse array of designers, maybe more diverse than any of the other big fashion capitals. As a result, we do get a lot of exciting young designers presenting good ideas.

Henry Zankov not only showed his own collection but also, he is now a creative director at Diane von Furstenberg which is obviously a bigger platform for him. Then, there is Zane Li, a young Chinese designer who did an extraordinary collection. It is like pieces of color blocks that make the collection a sort of abstract constructivist.

As for Rachel Scott, not only has she taken over at Proenza Schouler, but her own company Diotima is fabulous, and she is very inspired by the Caribbean this year. She looked at the impact of the oceans. It has been this connection both like a cemetery for murdered and kidnapped Africans and as a sort of conduit between the African motherland and all these other islands and places in the Americas. This collection was a super cool show. I think that's probably the main reason why New York is relevant, because people are looking there for new creative trends and new creative designers who might be able to have a bigger bang at another house. Zane Li said it's difficult to sell in America, but he is going over to show things in Paris, there is a little bit more ease for young independent designers to sell. In New York, it's much more open for them to show, it's not so regulated the way it is in Paris for example.