Pair of Kings: A Fashion and Culture Podcast · Pair of Kings

13.3 - How We Fix the Fashion Industry, NYFW Notes, and the Friends of Pair of Kings Live Show!

·1 hr 23 min·5 clips

New York Fashion Week is “completely hamstrung” by the CFDA, venue costs, and buyers who skip New York for Paris.

1. Pair of Kings: A Fashion and Culture Podcast records a live episode about the Friends of Pair of Kings pop-up and New York Fashion Week. 2. Saul Thompson hosts with Michael Smith, and they are joined by a studio audience, designers, and guests at Commune on Orchard Street. 3. The episode asks how the hosts can platform smaller designers in New York without forcing them through the usual fashion calendar. 4. Saul and Michael describe the pop-up as a months-long project that brought together brands they met in the fashion scene. 5. They thank Commune for hosting the event and say New York makes almost any space difficult to secure. 6. The hosts name the pop-up as a workaround for designers who do not have the size or inventory to stage solo retail events. 7. They also say the live format is intentionally informal, with listener questions and event banter woven through the conversation. 8. The discussion moves into New York Fashion Week and the designers and shows they saw this season. 9. Michael singles out Ocean Savage and her partner Jose, saying both are fresh out of Parsons and FIT and already building elaborate shows. 10. He points to more than 20 looks and three wedding gowns, including black and white versions, as a standout runway moment. 11. Saul highlights Anna Sui, Aria, and Eckhaus Lada as additional New York shows worth talking about. 12. Michael says Eckhaus Lada should not be called emerging because the brand has existed for about a decade. 13. They argue that the word emerging gets used too broadly for designers who are already established in fashion circles. 14. The conversation turns to Willie Chavarria and the shrinking space for menswear in New York. 15. They describe Men's Day inside a Mercedes dealership, with models backlit in the windows and visibly sweating in leather coats. 16. Saul and Michael connect the city’s problems to CFDA support, buyer behavior, and the cost of moving samples after new tariffs. 17. The episode’s live tone is loose, self-aware, and full of crowd interaction, including jokes about height, Instagram, and the editor cutting out personal details. 18. The format mixes event hosting, fashion critique, and guest interviews, especially when Ives Barrera explains his shoe-making process and Joseph Bautmeister introduces his perfume work. 19. This episode suits listeners who follow New York fashion, independent designers, and live event culture. 20. Skip it if you want a tightly edited, topic-specific fashion interview.

As heard by us

A warm live fashion episode about New York access, shared support, and one very specific denim gripe.

Pair of Kings uses a live Orchard Street pop-up to show how a fashion community can widen the room for designers who might not have enough pieces, scale, or support to hold that kind of event on their own.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a live Orchard Street fashion hang where New York access, mutual support, and a cursed rainbow-core denim tangent all share the room.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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