LaQuan Smith Will Show His Spring 2022 Collection in Famous NYC Landmark

Models Amilna Estevao and Yasmin Wijnaldum poses in LaQuan Smith’s Fall 2021 collection, a Black-owned luxury brand that expresses “audacious sensuality”, in Vogue-speak, and “assertive female power”. The designer’s clients include Beyoncé and JAY Z, Jennifer Lopez, Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner, Rihanna AND Hasidic Jewish women from his neighboring Brooklyn communities. Smith continues to dress them as private clients.

Alex White styles the fall-winter 2021 lookbook in images by Greg Swales. AOC shares the images — not only because LaQuan Smith is a Black designer who dresses some of the world’s biggest celebrities.

It’s tomorrow’s fashion show — LaQuan Smith’s spring 2022 offering — that is a welcome story, a New York story for one of New York’s own.

On Thursday September 9, at 9pm, LaQuan Smith will show his spring 2022 collection at New York City’s 90-year-old landmark Empire State Building. It will be the first show to ever take place in the famous skyscraper.

“Showing at the Empire State Building this season is a huge moment, not only for the brand but it holds a very special place in my heart. I am born and raised in New York, and to be able to show my spring 2022 collection at one of the most famous buildings in the city really feels like a full-circle moment for me,” he said. “I have the most vivid memories of being in grade school and going on field trips with my classmates to the Empire State Building. I remember being in awe of its magnitude, so it’s really amazing all these years later to be showing my collection there.”

The Empire State Building’s V.P. of branding is similarly thrilled. “We’ve waited 90 years for this moment,” said Stacey-Ann Hosang, “and we’re excited that the first time we have ever closed our world-famous observatory for such an event will be with another native New Yorker.”

The 9 p.m. show on September 9 will be Smith’s first since the pandemic began, his first as a member of the IMG Fashion Alliance, and his first outside of Spring Studios, where he held his runways previously. It will also take place at the culmination of a jam-packed day of fashion, with collections from Moschino, Gabriela Hearst, Carolina Herrera, and Monse. “Without giving too much away, you can expect a celebration of fashion with a nod to ’20s glamour,” the catsuit-obsessed designer says. “My vision for this collection was to inspire women to dress up and feel sexy again because New York is back. I am so passionate about this collection and am very excited for everyone to see what I have been working so hard on.”