.new collection
Private Policy at Work
*NYFW Spring/Summer 2025
written Malcolm Thomas
This season Private Policy tries to tackle AI and corporate oppression with a pop culture twist.
Everyone knows Theodore Shapiro’s now infamous compositions from the fashion classic, The Devil Wears Prada and can’t help but feel a certain wide-eyed excitement when they hear it. That’s probably precisely why it was playing over the speakers at The Altman Building before the Private Policy show on Wednesday, and certainly one of the reasons for the collection’s title, The Devil Is Here.
It was also one of many inspirations for the brand’s most recent collection. Iconic easter eggs like the famous Miranda Priestly line, “Everybody wants to be us,” was printed across a polo, and another line, “Florals, for spring?” inspired the brand’s signature checker prints to be updated with, you guessed it, florals.
However, the Private Policy designers, Haoran Li and Siying Qu’s sole intention was not to take us on a trip down memory lane, but to try to tackle a daunting conversation, one that has caused widespread fear in the heart of many creatives, AI. Where is it going? How will it impact us? Whether that question was answered was debatable, but it segued into another fear, going to the office.
The show opened with two employees clocking in, the daily rhythm most of us are slaves to and have dreaded even more post-pandemic, complete with disembodied ringing phones, computer clacking, Mac desktops, and even cubicles where the two performers pretended to type away as models burst through the seemingly corporate drudgery, key fobs dangled from pockets with empty plastic ID sleeves, work shirts were styled with combo jersey shorts and mini-skirts and even glittering hot pants made an appearance at the office. For context, this was a fashion office.
According to the program, the takeaway is this, “Perhaps what today’s generation truly seeks is not a return to the rigid hierarchies of Y2K corporate life, but the unapologetic ambition and dream-big energy of the Y2K era, reimagined for a future that prioritizes creativity and self-expression over outdated notions of obedience and submission.”
Then suddenly the performers promptly strutted down and off the runway. I guess it’s time to clock out.
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(c) Private Policy New York seen by Adriana Kaegi / NYFW 2025 - Spring/Summer 2025