By Morgan Guerra

Have we become too nice? Has the insular nature of New York Fashion finally caught up with us and created an echo chamber of niceties between the judges and the judged? Has the fraternization at after-parties and events caused critics to go too easy on designers?

I am not a mathematician, but I can grasp the statistical improbability that every time a critic used “remarkable” or “gorgeous,” it was meant with the conviction their tone suggests. It’s starting to look like with great publishing power comes the great responsibility to play nice with designers to stay on the invite list for future shows.

While Véronique Hyland and Booth Moore write a great detailed recap for New York Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2025 for ELLE and Womens Wear Daily, I can’t help but miss the opinionative nature of fashion critics’ past.

But first, I’ll note the positives: the writing.

Véronique Hyland is ELLE’s Fashion Features Director, and she has a cheery view of this year’s Fall/Winter collections despite the harsh conditions that usually dampen the mood.

At the beginning of every review, Hyland enumerates celebrity attendees, placing the reader in the front row next to pop stars, actors, and internet personalities.

This is both a feature for a comprehensive recap and a tactic used to hint to the mainstream reader that this show has a great level of importance. Because if Tracee Ellis Ross, Bad Bunny, and Kate Moss cared enough to go to the show, they should care enough to read about it.

Hyland does particularly well at painting a bulk of the picture right away. Splashing the metaphorical canvas of a good fashion critique with a paint bucket of descriptors of the general vibe for the show.

In the article “Marc Jacobs Gave Us Five Minutes in Fashion Heaven” Hyland relays the cartoonish looks accurately, and effectively.

Noting “extreme plays on volume, striking color combinations, and wonderfully oddball touches (this time around, that meant flats with uber-extended, pointy toes and exaggerated, cartoon-character pumps and boots),”.

She’s not showboating, but it’s effective, and it becomes apparent that this is for a reader who consumes fashion content casually here and there.

Keeping it concise, Hyland gets to the bottom of why these looks got sent down the runway in the first place. A sucker for a good quote, I admire the intertwining of show notes, giving context to a reader who may not catch niche references right away.

For Hyland’s article, “An Early Valentine From Carolina Herrera”, the floral motifs get a reasonable explanation straight from the designer.

“His inspiration: the Jerzy Kosinski book and Hal Ashby film Being There. In the latter, Peter Sellers plays a gardener who unexpectedly rises to political prominence.” said Hyland, “he wrote in his show notes about ‘tending to our wardrobes the way he would tend to his garden—meticulously, with thoughtful care.’”

Opinions are kept light, all complimentary, and full of positive buzzwords like “ethereal” and “A+”.

Hyland is skilled at relaying the energy and motive behind the show in few words with light opinions; for the casual reader, that’s all one needs.

However, Booth Moore, the West Coast Executive Editor at Women’s Wear Daily, has a longer approach for the audience that wants a little more.

For the more fashion-savvy, Moore swaps out the basic fashion jargon with more hard-hitting descriptions of looks.

Thom Browne’s show, full of odd-shaped business casual, is described by Moore with a sensibility that proves she knows what she’s talking about in her article “Thom Browne Fall 2025: A Fantastical Fashion Flock.”

“Coats and jackets with checks and plaids puzzled together, some with whimsical satin stitched or intarsia birds, were works of art,” writes Moore. “So, too, was a group of remarkable colorful dresses of pleated rep stripe silk twisted on the body, exquisitely executed, and tromp l’oeil looks with paper doll-like dresses backed by huge petticoats that glided down the runway like children’s toy tops,”

Some words require a search in the fashion dictionary here and there for untrained ears, but it solidifies that Moore writes with the prowess of a fashion expert. Her descriptive words don’t feel forced or out of place, she makes writing about high fashion easy and conversational without forfeiting classic verbiage to explain looks.

Moore’s organization of each runway critique is inconsistent, starting each with the most effective lede for the show.

If Moore has a great quote, it’s the opening line. If a designer just had an iconic red carpet look leading up to the runway, it’s the first thing the reader is told. If the show needs a prelude of context to set the scene for what came down the runway, it’s promptly provided.

She sets the scene well in the article “Elena Velez Fall 2025: ‘The Age of the Anti-Hero Is Upon Us’”, transporting the reader to the show itself before even touching on the looks.

“Elena Velez took over the subterranean Artechouse art-tech gallery Sunday night for her fall 2025 show, a dark and sweaty scene with immersive digital screens creating a mythological nautical world for her latest exploration of the female experience,” said Moore

While both Hyland and Moore write these love letters to New York Fashion Week Fall/winter 2025 shows, I feel like I can’t call these critiques “critical.”

Deep in me, an opinionated itch is going neglected.

Maybe I’m plagued with a cynical view of the world when all we need is love and compassion surrounding art, but my cynicism is too strong to suppress.

Look, I understand these runway presentations are better than anything I could fathom conjuring up, much less physically sew. But I can’t stop the roll of my eyes as an oversized blazer or shapeless floor-length gown is labeled “groundbreaking” for the umpteenth time.

All I’m saying is maybe we should bring back picking the least favorites to make the standouts look even better in comparison. The feeling of oversaturated positivity in every waking moment in fashion is exhausting, and it feels ingenuine.

But alas, I am only an amateur fashion writer who would kill to get an invite to any of these shows. So if flattery is my ticket in, I take it all back, everyone did a great job and I have zero notes.