Following her colorful, occasion-minded spring collection, which was all about using fashion as a way to take control of personal happiness, Norma Kamali’s pre-fall lineup was all about a wardrobe reset.
Over 55 years Norma Kamali has built a lexicon of signature styles that she parses each season to address the moment. Take the best-selling Diana dress; last season it was offered in party-’til-you-drop neons and metallics; for pre-fall it’s been toned down, appearing in muted shades like bone and lichen that speak to Kamali’s embrace of Zen in the face of a looming recession.
Being able to control your mental health by how you dress sounds ridiculous to anybody who’s not in the fashion industry. But I consider myself a wise old sage, and I’m telling you, when I put on something that makes me feel happy, I feel happy, despite whatever is going on in the world.
“Business is — I don’t even understand, you would think we were selling drugs in the clothes!” Norma Kamali said during her spring collection preview, held at her new TriBeCa office space. The designer’s Diana dress and her ruched lamé and mesh “sisters” continue to be bestsellers, so Kamali whipped them up in happy shades of bubblegum pink and lime green (as well as a pretty pearl, gunmetal and neon orange). The same could be said for her machine-washable, printed styles, present for spring in an extension of cable-knit, snakeskin and her hallmark stud patterns (which hugged the body’s curves just-so from the in-depth placement process).
Norma Kamali has become a “downtown girl” after many years of being an uptown one. Visiting her new West Village space I encountered an army of mannequins dressed in the collection and a designer delighted with her new digs and her balance sheets. “Our business has been just crazy, crazy, crazy. I’m always asking what’s going on? Why do people want this from me now? and I listen to what they want,” said Kamali. Her reading of the zeitgeist is that people want to feel good. “There’s no controlling the world situation, the wars, the government decisions that are being made that we don’t agree with,” she continued. “All of that takes a toll. I never thought I would say this in my entire life, that clothes are the answer, but I think we’re at that point, where there’s very little we can do, but we can get dressed.”
When the pandemic broke out, Norma Kamali thought, "I’ve been in business for over 50 years. Is this how it’s going to end for me?" Instead, both her clothing line and her lifestyle brand grew exponentially, a result of clever restrategizing and hard work. The designer continues to push the limits of what she can do, and offers a modern spin on everything from bridalwear and bathing suits (worn by Jennifer Lopez) to green tea supplements and furniture.
"Luxury is being healthy and beautiful because you are healthy," Kamali says, which should tell you everything you need to know about her approach to self-care. Here, the fashion powerhouse talks us through her daily beauty routine, as well as the wellness practice that is non-negotiable for her (hint: It involves a lot of green juice).
After 40 years, Norma Kamali has moved out of her headquarters at 11 West 56th Street in New York and has relocated to new downtown offices at 609 Greenwich Street.
Kamali told WWD the new 16,000-square-foot space will be used for installations, exhibitions “and all types of things interactive and immersive.” She said it will also serve as the brand’s headquarters, and where the company will do photo shoots and podcasts. It won’t serve as a retail space.
"What I've noticed as a designer is that the longer I'm doing this, the more I can intuit how the social condition affects what people are going to want to buy," says Kamali. "And I'm realizing more and more that this intuit perspective is what gives me the ability to start trends rather than follow them. And some of the trends I've started have lasted years and years."
“When I think of luxury, I always try to make it easy to wear so that the style doesn’t become so precious you only wear it once, twice or a few times for special occasions,” the voiceover of Norma Kamali said during a video of her resort collection.
For the resort season, Kamali proposed dressed-up ideas (in silhouette and print) with her signature ease. There were digital jewel print-emblazoned dresses and tops, as well as their standout 3D embellished counterparts on sheer mesh tanks, plus rich holiday-centric cable-knit and plaid fashions, which also were digitally printed.
With its sparkling beaded tops, velvets, and tartan prints, Norma Kamali’s resort collection feels “extra.” While it’s as wash-and-go as always, this lineup is also determinedly ornate, luxe, and showy. People want to feel good, the designer says, and fashion is a means of escapism. The question is whether that escapism is moving toward something (ie “a return to normal”) or is a now or never proposition (ie “party like it’s 1999” before the world ends).
Norma Kamali, a native New Yorker who built her more than 50-year-old company in the city, was honored Wednesday with the City of Design Award from the Museum of the City of New York at its spring symposium and luncheon.
She joins previous recipients such as Cynthia Rowley, Peter Marino, Jacques Grange, Ralph Pucci, Jonathan Adler, Simon Doonan and Elizabeth Graziolo.
See coverage in WWD
See coverage in Town & Country
Real Talk is a series we created to bring together insiders, collaborators, and experts to share exclusive content with you. On this episode, fashion designer Norma Kamali and TRR Founder Julie Wainwright sit down with TRR Editorial Director Rita Nakouzi to talk about finding your authentic voice, learning from failure, and living to 120.
Norma Kamali is no stranger to one-of-a-kind, custom bridal gowns. For over 15 years, the designer has produced major wedding dress moments for her best friends, daughters, and celebrity brides alike.
Most recently, while designing a bespoke gown for a future bride, Kamali had a spark of inspiration; and instead of creating one look, she found herself designing 12 dresses! After a few curated additions, Kamali turned these pieces into her first-ever bridal line, which is now available on NormaKamali.com.
Norma Kamali has lasted 55 years in fashion by strategically reviving old styles and making them relevant for new customers. The formula requires more than a flip through the archives, though.
“I feel like I’ve come out of the pandemic just as I hit 30, and I don’t know how to dress anymore,” said one reader of her wardrobe. I’ve gotten a lot of questions like this lately: “Should your wardrobe change when you are about to turn 30?” asked another person. “I just turned 40 and have never thought much about my personal style,” said someone else. “Where do I start?”
“The really fun part about one’s twenties is the discovery of personal style,” says designer Norma Kamali in her memoir-slash-self-help-book. “You have the freedom to dress any way you would like at this time, so experimenting is the way to do it.”
“Feminism” and “womanhood” mean different things to different folks. With The F-Word, our essay series running throughout Women’s History Month, we’re highlighting different perspectives—the good, the bad, and the complicated—of what those concepts mean to people.
Winter is definitely my least favorite season. Being raised in the south (Houston) the blistering temperatures grind my gears like no other. Ironically, however, my favorite clothing item is coats. “Pieces” as I endearingly refer to them as, are my favorite accessory. It doesn’t matter if my outfit is just sweats or if I don’t have on any makeup and my hair isn’t done, a great coat elevates any look in an instant.
One coat in particular, Norma Kamali’s Sleeping Bag Coat, has a little extra razzle dazzle, though. So much so, that there’s never been a time I’ve worn it and haven’t gotten dozens of compliments and inquiries of where I got it.
The Norma Kamali Diana Gown ($215) is the dress of the season... and not just because it's the exact dress Carrie Bradshaw wore on her first date with that hot teacher in And Just Like That. For starters, it's what my mom likes to call "an investment piece." The one-shoulder style is timelessly chic, and it can be dressed up or down depending on your mood—pair it with strappy sandals and a pair of statement earrings for a casual beach wedding in Miami (done it) or sky-high stilettos and a pair of opera gloves for a black-tie affair in Switzerland (also done it).
“A designer learns through the seasons and years that our job is to have the tempo of what people are feeling,” the voice of Norma Kamali said over her fall collection video.
She echoed this message over Zoom, explaining that right now, optimistic fashions that exude the feminine, and are also timeless, are the key to how women are dressing and feeling.
Norma Kamali has an optimistic and realistic way of looking at the world and at fashion that has given a longevity to her clothes that many designers would envy. Take the shirred Diana dress: Designed in the 1970s, it was worn by Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw on And Just Like That… and is selling like hotcakes. As with everything Kamali designs, this sexy dress can be thrown in the washing machine, and since it stretches, it adapts to many body types.
Through her use of bias cutting and drawstrings, and translation of swimwear aspects like cutouts into ready-to-wear, Kamali has always made clothes that could be described as user-friendly, which means something different in 2022 than it did even 10 years ago. “A lot of the way we shop is through photos on a screen, and the way the light comes through the photos and how eye-catching the photos are, how appealing emotionally that experience is, is really a very modern thought process that many of us didn’t have to think about before,” said Kamali. “So if I have a dark color or something subtle, I have to do something so it pops off the screen.”
Jennifer Lopez was one of many women to champion slip dresses throughout the '90s and Noughties. Take the silk spaghetti-strap dress she wore to attend a Tom Ford for Gucci benefit for APLA in 1997. Or the sparkly "naked dress" she wore to the CFDAs in 1998.
Proving that slinky slip dresses have ever-lasting appeal, J Lo channelled her younger self in a cherry-red silk Norma Kamali dress and platform heels for an appearance on The Tonight Show.
If you haven’t already manically binged the latest episode of And Just Like That, scroll all the way down to the shopping section of this story to avoid spoilers and skip right to the very cute dress. If you have watched—let’s discuss! Finally, Carrie is back on her feet and ready to dip her toes into the dating pool (as advised by both her editor and Oprah, NBD) and of course, our girl had to school us all in first-date fashion. Carrie Bradshaw’s date dress has been living in my head rent-free since I first saw it in behind-the-scenes photos of filming back in 2021, and for just $215, it can be yours in any of 20 colors. Yep, that many.
And Just Like That costume designers Molly Rogers and Danny Santiago needed six samples of the blue Norma Kamali dress Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) wears in episode seven of the HBO Max hit series. It's the look she chooses for her first foray back into the dating world (don't pretend you weren't wondering what she'd wear . . . ), and it's not a bad choice. It's formfitting, it works as a great piece to layer with, and it's effortlessly sexy when teamed with a silver-foiled Max Mara blazer, Aquazzura jewel-strap heels, and Paco Rabanne snake-effect metal clutch.
For pre-fall, Norma Kamali turned out all the stops to debut a celebratory, bridal-forward collection. Although the designer had previously designed one-of-a-kind bridal looks in the ’90s, for 15 years, her pre-fall collection started when the designer had offered to design a princess-inspired gown for the daughter of a close friend. A handful of dress samples later, Kamali (who is also engaged) wanted to expand the assortment to offer the collection for any bride-to-be.
Norma Kamali is and always has been pro-woman. For pre-fall she’s also pro-princess (bride). The impetus was her own impending nuptials and the assignment to create a dreamy wedding dress for the daughter of a good friend, who happens to be a neuroscientist with fairy-tale good looks.
For about 15 years starting in the mid-’90s, Kamali designed custom bridal looks, including for one Cynthia Germanotta, whose daughter Lady Gaga wears it in her video for “You and I.” This time around Kamali’s offerings are off-the-rack and aimed at a variety of brides (Disney princess, Jessica Rabbit, and so on). “They’re modern, they’re easy to take care of,” said Kamali on a call, adding that they are relatively affordable. “The amount of money you spend on a gown doesn’t necessarily mean that that gown is more beautiful, or it isn’t more fantastical or magical, or makes you feel any better because you spent more,” she said.
Bye-bye, tutu! Get a peek at the timeless dress that’s about to become the “Sex and the City” character’s next big thing.
We use cookies on our site to give you the best experience. To continue using our site, please accept cookies.