Diane von Furstenberg comes back to New York after nine years, with the first designer from outside the house

Henry Zankov opened the Spring 2027 week on the High Line with a collection that started from colour and let print follow. It was also the first New York season run under the CFDA's ban on real fur.

By Nar Cissa·September 11, 2026·2 min read

New York's Spring 2027 week opened on Thursday, September 10, and it opened with a return. Diane von Furstenberg showed on the official calendar for the first time in nine years, on the High Line above the brand's Meatpacking District store, and the collection was the debut of Henry Zankov, the first artistic director the house has hired from outside.

We set out the week's schedule in August: around 70 shows through September 15, closing with Thom Browne, and Ralph Lauren on the evening before the official start.

Colour first, print second

The reviews agree on the method. Zankov did not open the archive with the wrap dress and its prints. He started with colour, tomato red, peacock blue, jade and fuchsia, and let pattern come in as punctuation. Fashionista and WWD describe fluid dresses in body-skimming jersey and chiffon, soft-shouldered tailoring, bow-finished blouses and archival animal prints, with a Studio 54 sensibility running underneath.

Zankov's own summary of the brief, as quoted in the coverage: "Diane always told me it was all about 'body language'."

That is a sensible first season for a house like this. DVF's value is concentrated in a very small set of codes, the wrap, the print, a certain idea of a woman who moves. A first collection that translates those codes instead of rewriting them keeps the customer and buys the designer a second season to take a risk. The harder question, which one show cannot answer, is whether an outside designer can make the house matter to a customer who was not born when the wrap dress was.

The first season without fur

The week was also the first under the CFDA's ban on real fur on the official calendar, which we covered when it was announced. The rule covers mink, fox, rabbit, chinchilla, coyote and raccoon dog on runways and at official events, with an exception for fur from Indigenous traditional hunting.

No breach was reported in the coverage of the week. That is less remarkable than it sounds: fur had largely left the New York runways before the rule did. The ban matters as a precedent for the other three cities, not as a change in what New York shows.

Collection details and the Zankov quote as reported by Fashionista, WWD and Marie Claire. Schedule per the CFDA. Scope of the fur ban per WWD.

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