NYFW SS27: Classic Never Looked Like This

New York Fashion Week has a funny way of reminding you that fashion is never really about the clothes alone. It’s about interpretation, taking something familiar and asking what happens when you push it somewhere unexpected.

For Spring/Summer 2027, both Negris Lebrum and Custo Barcelona did exactly that, arriving at NYFW with collections that felt distinctly their own while refusing to play it safe.

Negris Lebrum: Americana, With a New Attitude

Negris Lebrum’s SS27 collection looked at the idea of classic American style through a decidedly modern lens. Rooted in the history and culture of Americana, the collection took familiar silhouettes and gave them new energy through bold color, texture, and unexpected details.

There’s something inherently difficult about working with Americana. The references are so deeply embedded in fashion that it can be easy for them to feel predictable. But Negris Lebrum approached those codes with enough confidence to make them feel fresh rather than nostalgic.

Traditional tailoring met more playful proportions, while rich textures and striking color combinations kept the collection moving. The result was polished without feeling overly precious, classic American dressing, but with the volume turned up.

What stood out most was the balance between familiarity and experimentation. These were recognizable fashion ideas, but they weren’t presented as museum pieces. Instead, the collection treated Americana as something alive: something that can shift, evolve, and take on a completely different personality depending on who is wearing it.

Custo Barcelona: Fashion in Motion

If Negris Lebrum explored Americana through reinvention, Custo Barcelona leaned fully into movement, color, and collision.

NABI had the chance to speak with designer Custo Dalmau, who described the collection’s theme in one word: “UNEXPECTED.” And honestly, that pretty much sums it up.

Known for its energetic approach to color, materials, and pattern, Custo Barcelona brought flowing silhouettes that moved alongside bold textures and vibrant combinations, creating the sense that each look was constantly shifting.

Dalmau describes the brand as “a fusion of colors and materials where fashion is motion,” and SS27 made that philosophy impossible to miss. The collection wasn’t interested in standing still. Fabrics moved, colors collided, textures competed, and silhouettes seemed designed to come alive once they hit the runway.

There was a playful quality to the collection, but it never felt random. The unexpected elements were carefully constructed, creating looks that felt maximalist without losing their sense of direction.

Two Brands, Two Ways Forward

What connects Negris Lebrum and Custo Barcelona is their willingness to take established ideas and refuse to leave them untouched. One looked inward at the history of American fashion; the other looked outward through color, movement, and experimentation. Yet both collections made the same argument: familiar doesn’t have to mean predictable.

And perhaps that’s exactly what NYFW is at its best: it’s taking what we think we know, and making us look at it differently.