COS RETURNS TO NEW YORK FASHION WEEK WITH A STUDY IN CONTRAST

Camz
Sep 16
2 min read

The setting: raw warehouse, pristine vision

COS returned to New York Fashion Week this September with its Autumn Winter 2025 collection, choosing the Greenpoint Terminal Warehouse along Brooklyn’s waterfront as the stage. Industrial, cavernous, unapologetically raw, the space was reimagined in pristine white. A warehouse turned temple.

Suspended light boxes shifted from warm glow to clinical white, washing the room in theatrical clarity and underlining the 47 looks about to appear. If the message was quiet confidence and modernist elegance, it was delivered with almost surgical precision.

The palette of sophistication

In deliberate contrast to the bleached setting, the collection grounded itself in rich, inky darks: black, steel grey, deep navy. It was elegance whispered rather than shouted, the kind of palette that ages like good tailoring.

Neutral accents added lightness, while COS relied on materials and textures to provide depth. Pony-effect surfaces, supple leather, shearling. Matte versus sheen, a dialogue of restraint and indulgence.

Moments of sheer transparency cut through the heaviness, revealing the body in motion like a secret let slip. Checks appeared with authority, stamped across ready-to-wear, accessories and footwear, forming whole looks that felt both heritage-inspired and decidedly now.

Womenswear: cocooning elegance and a hint of 1950s nostalgia

For womenswear, COS leaned into cocooning volumes. Scarves enveloped, high necks framed the face, and draping sculpted the silhouette with architectural ease. Yet, in a twist of history, the cinched waists and open necklines called back to the 1950s New Look, proving that timelessness is always ripe for reinterpretation.

One standout was the softly sculpted silk dress. Day-to-night versatility, COS’s specialty, condensed into a single piece that could change character with styling. In other words: elegance for the office, and still elegance at dinner, only with better lighting.

Menswear: tailoring without the stiffness

Menswear took the language of tailoring and softened it. Functional yet inventive, the cuts balanced utility with innovation. Oversized proportions and sharp shoulders refreshed familiar classics, while tonal layering modernised the whole idea of dressing in sets.

There were details that nodded to uniform: buttoned epaulettes, practical pocket placements, coordinating trousers but reframed with ease. Knits in basketweave, plush chenille surfaces: tactility as another form of confidence. Footwear anchored the looks with timeless boots and trainers, tonal and classic with just enough twist to keep them interesting.

The accessories

Accessories completed the narrative without stealing the show. Bags reflected the garments in both material and finish, extending the theme of balance and contrast.

Footwear for women came in sleek leather loafers and sock boots, a neat punctuation to silhouettes otherwise defined by volume. For men, tonal boots and trainers grounded the layering in pragmatism. COS knows accessories are the quiet accomplices, not the divas.

Conclusion: timelessness, with a wink

The COS Autumn Winter 2025 show was an ode to refinement, craft and relevance, performed in a warehouse polished into minimalism. It was about structure and fluidity, softness and strength, elegance that works in daylight as well as under a spotlight.