LAZARO HERNANDEZ

Sailboats wafted by on the Hudson River and the setting sun sparkled on the water as Proenza Schouler celebrated a return to in-person fashion shows against the spectacular setting of New York’s buzziest waterfront locale, Little Island.

FILE -Ella Emhoff appears at a rally for her stepmother Sen. Kamala Harris, announcing Harris' presidential campaign in Oakland, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 27, 2019. The designers at Proenza Schouler dressed Ella Emhoff in a couple of coats (plus a pantsuit) for her modeling debut in their new collection, unveiled Thursday for New York Fashion Week. Soon after, the designers were planning their February show — actually a digital short, for pandemic reasons — and the casting director mentioned Emhoff. AdFor Emhoff, the designers chose a long gray wool coat with fluffy embellishments on the shoulders, then a midnight navy leather trench-type coat, and finally a black pantsuit. “She's a nice sort of ambassador of the new moment," he said, before moving artfully away from any political implications.

In an interview they mused that maybe less is more and they dont need to do runway shows with every collection. The designers have also been thinking about longterm changes to the way they and their colleagues work. Maybe, they mused in an interview, less is more, and they don’t need to do runway shows with every collection. But you know us designers, we’re on this insane schedule, so we had to basically start thinking about drawing our spring collection. We’re on this hamster wheel of show after show after show, and we’ve realized we could say something as strong about a collection without having a show.