The final day of New York Fashion Week's Spring 2025 season came the morning after MTV's 2024 Video Music Awards. At the awards ceremony, stars like Katy Perry, Chapelle Roan, and Tyra wore sheer, naked dresses and shredded two-pieces that showed off their underwear, some (like Perry) still warm from walking the Spring 2025 runway just days earlier.Marie Covering the VMA's most striking looks for Claire reinforced a truth that every fashion editor knows. Many of the trends set by designers are designed first and foremost for celebrities. Or celebrities who can't stay away from social media.

Just waking up the next morning and heading to work, I could see the antithesis of my own statement in flesh and blood and fabric. Thank goodness: I was running out of things to wear. The best looks from New York Fashion Week's Spring 2025 collection were, of course, by female-led brands, but they were not designed for shock value.

Indeed, some designers have internalized some of the more over-the-top trends that have permeated the past few seasons, such as exaggerated fringe and sheer skirts, and found ways to make them work for the Hollywood public. At the same time, at the opposite end of the spectrum, they have pushed the businesswoman's special attire in a more adventurous direction. In between: a variety of clothes that are definitely wearable and interesting at the same time.

On the morning of the last day of my show, designer Daniella Kallmeyer, who had been working on her signature smart tailoring with a big trend proposition - here a sheer skirt, there a draped plaid with an open back It started with Kallmeyer, who injected her signature smart tailoring - here a sheer skirt, there an open-back, draped plaid top and pants - into the collection. Shirts with built-in coordinating ties reappeared in gorgeous shades of deep marigold yellow. Classic black suits remixed the bottom with A-line skirts instead of pants. Draped dresses are like flowing rivers, yet somehow not overly formal, and from the second row, I saw a lineup that I would have bought in its entirety if I didn't have student loan payments to pay.

“We were able to step out of our comfort zone in terms of colors, textures, and even specific shapes, while constantly revisiting and returning to the Kallmeyer DNA,” Kallmeyer told me in a voice memo a few days after the show, the first runway-style show in many seasons. The venue was packed, but a splashy debut wasn't necessarily the goal. 'Ultimately, the most important thing for us is to make sure these clothes leave the runway and fit into your wardrobe,' he said. She says, “It should feel like an easy, true-to-life, trend-neutral item that you can tie into your existing style DNA and future wearability.”

Kallmeyer's collection ended with great success, but it was not the only collection I am looking forward to shopping in April. Reviewing my camera roll, which was filled with eye-catching pieces by Tibi and Maria McManus, “future wearability” was the key phrase. Designers Amy Smilovic and Maria McManus understand how to make just a few tweaks to glimpsed fabrics and bare shoes for women who may never step foot on a red carpet. It's all about balancing revealing fabrics with more concealing shapes and colors, then styling them with oversized blazers and drop-waist tops.

The moment Marie Claire fashion director Sarah Holzman and I walked into the candlelit, cavernous loft where Diotima's Spring 2025 presentation took place, we knew designer Rachel Scott was on the same page. It turned out to be a good thing. According to the show notes, the collection was born out of a “Caribbean dream,” and there is always a sense of the beach in Scott's crochet and seashell-like pariet embellishments. But when you see Scott pairing crocheted fringed skirts with black eyelet floral button-downs or cork wedge clogs with draped, almost wet column dresses, you get a sense of summer dressing that isn't just for the resort. Holtzman snapped a few pictures with his cell phone, “This is actually what I wear.”

Of course, we don't just wear clothes. According to Rachel Comey's Spring 2025 show notes, we also dress to “work, tour, speak, meet, assure, argue, celebrate, debate, win, lose, listen, flow, arrive, make, stretch, change, find, hustle, carry.” She never doubted that if she wanted to, she could do all those things in her draped blazer or light flared skirt. And when I saw her pants with thigh-length fringe tops, or her business-like skirts with blazers and no shirts underneath, and models of all ages wearing them, I knew I could do that without having to rely on a start-up business casual brand to do it. It was fun and sophisticated enough to accommodate the “book tours, industry events, conference rooms,” or A-lister schedules, as Comey's show notes said. Jemima Kirk, who was across from me, kept taking pictures throughout the show as if she had a camera roll full of her closet.

New York Fashion Week's Spring 2025 season will conclude with the Emmy Awards on Sunday, September 15. On that red carpet, trends will be set and reinforced, as they are every time. But if you are looking for “future wearability,” wait patiently until next spring. This time the designers have made the wait worthwhile.