Finding a bona fide couturier in New York is relatively rare, yet on Sunday two fresh talents, Bach Mai and Dauphinette, staged impressive collections ranging from poised to punchy, after a morning of Scandi minimalism at Cos.
 

Bach Mai: Downtown couture

Bach Mai launched his brand back in 2019 but it is still very much a fledgling label, albeit one that has dressed the likes of Amal Clooney, Kate Beckinsale and Lucy Liu.

Brought up in Texas by Vietnamese immigrant parents, Mai worked with Oscar de la Renta after graduating from Parsons. While there, he participated in the Oscar collection created in tandem with John Galliano. Before moving to Paris, completing a masters in the Institut Français de la Mode, and rejoining Galliano at Maison Margiela.

See catwalk

 
The result is that Mai’s look is classic couture with a twist. Essentially composed of eveningwear, his spring/summer 2026 collection managed to combine the best in couture techniques with bravura New York self-confidence.
 
Opening with a beautifully draped silk georgette slip dress worn under a degradé gray Prince of Wales evening trench and following that up with a cream organza suit – though made of shorts and hacking jacket.
 
Then came the first of a great series of polka dot ideas. From jumbo dot taffeta lab coats to an organza polka dot strapless miny volant dress or a fab final passage, a sculpted black satin gown where the dots were transparent panels. Mai riffed on Prince of Wales frequently — whether a bustier gown with corset lacing or a super plaid velvet jacquard dress.
 
In short, very much clothes for sophisticated grown-ups. Modernist couture with technical flourishes mixed with urban attitude in a truly admirable display.
 

Dauphinette: Athena in the Ashlyn

Warrior women, bold goddesses and racy nymphs populated the runway in a memorable Dauphinette show, capturing its founder Olivia Cheng in a hot creative zone.
 
Cheng is the latest recycling raver in American fashion, making her ideas clear from her brilliant  look: a metallic Athena in a tough girl gutsy tunic composed of metallic watch straps. Following that up with a divine Minerva in a semi-disheveled ink blue vintage chiffon dress.
 
Cheng loves a visual pun, sculpting up a fish skeleton bra made of vintage suede, metal and clay, before she went into overdrive with a barely-there gold chain spaghetti dress that managed to include gold painted Ginko leaves. And then wowed with hundreds of buttons densely sewn onto a mesmerizing mini cocktail piece.
 
Dauphinette likes to boast at least 50% of each collection is from recycled materials, and it sure looked that way in this intimate show staged inside the cool retro Brass bar within the Ashlyn Hotel. Cheng is also technically audacious – showing a marvelous transparent plastic caban, where each compartment had its own real seashell.

 
“I will say this – we took three seasons off from NYFW to bring the best version of Dauphinette. I’m calling it couture, but maybe I am just being cocky because we certainly haven’t consulted the bigwigs in Paris,” opined Cheng in her program notes.
 
Well, as someone who has been covering Paris couture seasons for over 35 of them, I can attest that Cheng has every right to call her fashion couture, because that is precisely what it was.
 

Cos: Well-groomed in Greenpoint

Cos is a Swedish fashion label designed for architects or people who like to think they might be come across like architects. So, they look fashionable even if fashion doesn’t matter too much to them.
 
For several years, Cos has staged its shows in New York, which makes sense given the city’s permanently changing skyline thanks to work by globally recognized architects. And the fact is that real estate — more than finance and art — is the defining business of this great city.
 
Cos’s spring/summer 2026 collection had plenty to recommend it. Karin Gustafsson is an accomplished designer, with a sharp eye for elegantly understated fabrics. She cuts with precision and every passage looked spruce and professional for men and women in this co-ed show.

 
Her choice of felty wools and cottons meant she could sculpt coats, tops and tunics with an artistic touch, while her funnel neck trench coats and grand coats all were flattering on guys — high-end son-in-laws, all of them.
 
Quite why Cos dragged everyone out to the Greenpoint in Brooklyn and then turned the raw red brick space into an antiseptic white box was hard to understand. Then again, the whole point of Cos is to create clothes that make a quiet statement to be worn by people who don’t want to have to think about what their outfits say.
 
Poise without punch, the diametric opposite of the two American couturiers.