Super Bowl Sunday—game day fashions and more

Snow and sludge were not enough to stop the fashion from steaming ahead on Sunday as shows continued on day four. While most eyes eagerly awaited Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, the garment trade (and those who latch on to it) were preparing their own seasonal victories. Two designers, Jonathan Cohen and Sally LaPointe, referenced sports, while Ulla Johnson entered her golden era.

Ulla Johnson

Ulla Johnson has mastered the impressive runway set. For her Fall/Winter 2025 show, she laid the floor with gold-plated brass tiles on the 14th floor of 555 Greenwich Street, overlooking the Hudson River. She marked the runway with a singular flower-shimmering metal statue, “Le Géant,” by French artist Julie Hamisky, who also designed the jewelry. It made for a dramatic yet poignant moment, perhaps as a solemn tribute to the designer’s mother, who passed away recently.

Show notes referenced a bygone Byzantine era: glistening silken threads, gold leaf, hand painting, hand-felted, and hand embroidery—elements of craft Johnson’s creations are known for—all made modern for today’s wardrobe. The theme suggested evolution, and the collection followed suit.

Most remarkably, it restrained the Bohemian Bourgeoisie, aka Bo-Bo aesthetic; yes, it was still there, but with curtailed pattern use, fewer hippie tropes, and the addition of more tailored styles, the collection read more cerebral than in the past. The music was “Paint It Black” by the Rolling Stones, but covered in Italian, as was for “Knights in White Satin.” The songs were familiar yet different, much like the collection.

All-gold brocade fabrics, woven metallic tweeds, and an embroidery gold-on-black-chiffon look opened the show, marking the shift. Pantsuits in neutral black or tan with a chromatic topper signaled a need from the collection that the Ulla Johnson woman might desire.

Standouts included great statement outerwear, whether marled felted coat, faux fur, an emerging trend, ombre toppers in yellow, brown, and red car coats or purple, black, and green, and a tan leather trench that topped a brown sequin sweater and olive leather pant.

Capelets adorning denim and twill jacket styles were a distinct take as well. Leather options read sensual more than tough as a short brown miniskirt with a tucked-in thick cable knit sweater (another emerging trend that may be hard to pull off for many) and a black leather A-line skirt paired with a turtleneck worn with a crystal jewelry bra worn over it under brown overcoat. Chunky, crystal-fringed embellishments added a frivolity and insouciance to several styles while the main patterns, shown as intarsia knits, echoed the Baroque reference.

Just before the show started, a production team mopped the shiny flooring—a futile effort with varying degrees of shine; it was impossible to keep them all glistening.  It seems like a good analogy for fashion, but keeping things fresh isn’t always easy. In this show, Johnson succeeded.

Jonathan Cohen

Fun fact: in June 1963, when Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, was knocked down by his opponent Henry Cooper at Wembley Stadium, the GOAT boxer said it was because he was distracted by Elizabeth Taylor sitting ringside.

This rare boxing moment was met with defeat and glamour and was the starting point for Jonathan Cohen’s Fall Winter 2025 collection. The designer combined the sport’s motifs with Taylor’s early 60s glamour into a cheeky and sophisticated result that leaned more into an era than earlier efforts.

Speaking to FashionNetwork.com, Cohen explained how the two worlds came together. “The idea of that event was incredible, Liz Taylor in a stunning dress and the expressions on her face. The thoughts were amazing and not always PG,” Cohen explained.

The concept of Taylor’s lavender eyes fixated on the designer to the point he created a jacquard and embroidery print featuring her eyes abstracted that hit on a ‘proper fall coat’ and a column gown with an Empire waist marked by a yellow bow reminiscent of the Camelot era. “I was very invested in this collection; I always am. But once I am done, I move on, and with this collection, I am still living in this world.” (Who isn’t yearning for the Kennedy era right about now?)

Cohen leaned into jackets more than ever, showing snatched-waist peplums and cropped styles often mixed and matched with the other key pattern—an embroidered white-and-yellow floral motif on navy satin. Sheer black skirts with paillette-embroidered flowers were hard to resist.

The ‘push and pull’ of boxing and fashion was most evidenced in a charming boxer short and cropped work shirt look, jacquard pants with two grosgrain stripes running down the side, and the boxing shoe/boots collaboration with Marina Larroudé of Larroudé for a playful modern touch to the collection. A serendipitous meeting with eyewear legend Selima Salaun of Selima Optique has yielded Cohen’s first eyewear style, the Siouxsie, after the legendary 80s singer.

Cohen encapsulated the collection with a display campaign featuring key New York (mainly) women instrumental in the brand’s success. Cohen clinched the deal regarding a proposition for something not yet in one’s closet this fall.

Sally LaPointe

Sports were also a theme for designer Sally LaPointe, who chose the NBPA headquarters and training facility to showcase her own feat: 15 years as an independently owned and female-founded fashion brand. LaPointe used the regulation-size court as her runway, oddly enough smack dab in the middle of a midtown 6th Ave office building. By default, it became a metaphor for her career journey.

Entitling the collection “Endurance,” a note on the seats defined it as ‘the power to withstand pain or hardships, the ability or strength to continue despite the adverse conditions.’  Whatever the trials the designer went through to get to this point, the collection demonstrated her conviction to execute her vision, making it powerful and seemingly effortless.

LaPointe loves to celebrate musical and dance troupes; this time, her show was opened with a choreographed dance (think drill team on an executive level) by @supa-blackgirl led by Traci Young-Byron. The models were dressed in hot pink boy shorts and hoodies, with the tops flounced with the brand’s signature feather motif.

The models had the fortitude to follow the outstanding performance in their fierce outfits. Out came a slick patent leather jacket, a snakeskin trench, leopard prints as a long coat and brief paired with sheer pieces, and billowing chiffon cape styles topped with fur or marabou. A yellow charmeuse asymmetrical style paired with a black sequin legging only visible on one leg looked like a slam dunk at retail. Making her debut on the Lapointe runway was WNBA Chicago Sky player Kyrse Gondrezick, who possesses the ‘unapologetic confidence’ for the LaPointe look.

A big message was that chaps in various fabrications—black leather, leopard fur, and pink feathers—leaned into the Western trend but made it audaciously sexy. The designers also chose some old fur styles in conjunction with Saga Furs. Lapointe showed plenty of shimmery orange looks in a nod to the game ball and an Instagram and sports-fan-worthy crystal minaudières, perfect for those high-profile wives, basketball and otherwise.