Tory Burch’s Astonishing Fall/Winter 2020 NYFW

Sotheby’s wasn’t a bad place to spend a Sunday morning, looking at colourful porcelain artworks by Francesca DiMattio, whose material exploration of female domesticity includes sculptures decorated with clay that has been squeezed through a kitchen garlic press.

“She bought the very first ceramic sculpture I ever sold in 2012, so it’s actually really sweet to reconnect, and I think there is a common thread of trying to infuse decorative, in her case with prints and mine with materiality, with strength,” said the New York artist of her patron Tory Burch.

Who assembled a mini-exhibition of 11 of DiMattio’s giant works for a runway set, and enlisted the artist (who’s also a painter) to create painterly floral prints for the collection. There was a performance in the mix, too, from singer Alice Smith, serenading models with the song, “You Don’t Own Me,” as they walked the galleries.

“I wanted to feel a bit more emotion and have it be more intimate,” Burch said backstage of the setting (all four galleries of it!) for the quietly romantic collection, mixing modest silhouettes with some power accents for a bit of “Little Women” chic.