Naeem Khan Parties on at New York Fashion Week, Creating His Own Posh Supper Club in Midtown

Morning is a Fine Time to Party Too

By Clifford Pugh // Sep 11, 2021

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Naeem Khan takes a bow at the end of his runway show. (Photo courtesy of Naeem Khan)

NEW YORK — Even at 10 in the morning, Naeem Khan believes it’s time to party.

The designer, who got his start as an apprentice to the legendary Halston, turned Sony Hall in Midtown Manhattan into a posh supper club, with a live five piece jazz band, including a singer in a glittery evening gown, singing such standards as “Girl from Ipanema,” as the background for the debut of his spring/summer 2022 collection.

The mid-morning start time didn’t deter the New York Fashion Week audience, many of whom wore sequin pants and feathery coats in keeping with the theme. They sat at small round tables in the art deco ballroom, evoking a more glamorous era when couples dressed to the nines for a night on the town.

Models glided through the room, stopping at strategic locations to make a dramatic pose and allow onlookers to see the designs up close.

Rather than rely on the heavily sequined gowns that he is known for, Naeem Khan went in a breezier direction for this collection, which will available in Houston at Elizabeth Anthony. He opened with a series of brightly colored sea-themed looks. Jeans, halter gowns and kaftans in starfish, sea shell and fish-patterned prints seem more suited for outdoor fun on the Amalfi coast or a ’50s-era Havana terrace than indoor dancing cheek-to-cheek.

The jeans in the collection are made from organic hemp, a natural fabric that is much friendly to the environment.

Naeem Khan runway show at New York Fashion Week — Naeem Khan Amalfi porcelain crop top with matching hemp jeans. (Photo courtesy of Naeem Khan)

Animal prints never seem to go out style, so Naeem Khan offers a range of such looks, from tight jeans, jackets and high-neck blouses in a tiger print design to a one-shoulder gowns that mixes floral and leopard print patterns.

For evening, he features gowns with big ball skirts in floral prints, a slinky red one-shoulder gown with a thigh-high slit and gowns covered with ostrich feathers. Some gowns, like a marigold taffeta ballgown with a midriff-baring cut-out bodice and several see-through embroidered creations, are designed to be more daring.

There’s even a Las Vegas showgirl quality to several body-hugging glass-embroidered jumpsuits — the kind that that ’70s-era Cher would have eagerly worn.