11 May 2026 |
Meet Andrew Curwen.
Andrew Curwen’s work is fulfilling the fantasy that fashion so deeply needs right now. Severe corsetry, extreme ruffled boleros, extravagant lace, embellished embroidery, and dramatic hourglass silhouettes conjure up whispers of the greats of fashion. That doesn’t come as a surprise as Curwen grew up in Lana del Rey’s hometown of Lake Placid, New York and was raised on the likes of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano. Lady Gaga wore his gothic dream of a corset last fall, and he just recently debuted his first official show on the NYFW calendar earlier this year. His aesthetic is firmly over-the-top: Victorian inspired skirts made out of three bolts of cotton voile and darkly whimsical suiting reworked with shocking cut-outs.
Unsurprisingly, Curwen knew he wanted to be a designer since he was 11 years old, stemming from a walk with a friend when the idea struck him. “He was like, ‘Well, I’m going to be a lawyer’… And I remember looking at him and being like, ‘Oh, well, I’m going to be a designer.’ When I was saying it out loud, it stuck,” he says. To get to his goal he studied at Parsons before working his way through the industry, at the likes of Wiederhoeft, Area, Jane Wade and Elena Velez, culminating in his first runway show off-schedule last year.
If Curwen’s pieces speak to the forgotten fantasy realm of fantasy, that’s fully intentional. Aside from collaborating with some of the top-tier emerging designers in the New York scene, he also got his own kind of fashion education as an employee at the infamous vintage shop, Beacon’s Closet. “That’s a body farm of fashion,” he says. “Seeing where pieces tend to decay first, what needs reinforcement, and what fabrics look really good over time.” Amidst the racks of shriveled up Jean Paul Gaultier mesh tops and 1980s nylon nightgowns, he trained his eye for the best from every era, and most importantly, he picked up on the construction of clothes that lasted a lifetime (and beyond.) “I vehemently avoid any shoulder pad that has foam in it. You pick up an ‘80s piece and then suddenly all this yellow dust falls out the sleeve,” he says, with a laugh.
The fashion industry today exists on the idea of more, more, more and at a lightning pace, too. But Curwen attempts to deliver something that feels like it more closely aligns with art. His fall 2026 collection, dubbed Sonnet No. 2, was full of fabric manipulation and outsize silhouettes that command presence. “It’s a mixture of a full visual fantasy, as well as making pieces properly so that it can last,” he says. One of Curwen’s dresses that Lady Gaga commissioned for Mayhem Requiem, for example, came epicly oversized and equally overdone, tiered in seven different colors of organza. “It consumed 337 yards of silk fabric,” Curwen says. “It’s literally hundreds of thousands of circles layered and strung together.”
In a world increasingly dominated by casual — jeans, button-down shirts, et al — Curwen speaks to the opposite. The corset is the key to his looks, acting as a symbolic structure and an underpinning to the most dramatic looks. “It’s very visceral. You immediately see your body in a different way and you tend to hold yourself differently,” he says. “I love seeing that transformation because it’s something that fashion has the privilege to bring out in people.”
While corset was his first fascination with fashion when he was little, so too were the daring provocations of McQueen and Galliano. “There’s a certain type of designer with a lack of [filter]… a bit of a nerve in some people’s eyes and delusion,” he says. “And in that, I understand that I can’t make fashion that I don’t fully love.” He recalls watching the viral swan song of Galliano for Maison Margiela and thinking of the impact collections can make when given time. After all, Galliano reportedly spent a year putting together that runway show with the best of the best. “I cried because I felt the exact same way watching that show as I did watching Dante for the first time. It was a point where it reminded me of where the power lies when everything is on the same high level.” He adds: “If I can do anything like what they did for me for the next generation, I will die so happy.”
What sets him apart from the old guard is that even with all the structure, Curwen designs his pieces to be wearable and inclusive. He prioritizes techniques that aren’t precious — like ruffled wool to give the effect of a cloud-like texture — but still create drama, so they can be thrown into a suitcase or easily transported without a massive wooden box or mannequin. And much like the runway presentation, which included size diversity, the clothing doesn’t just work for one body. “A lot of these pieces, the closure in the back is actually like corset lacing,” he says. “It has about a four to five size range, so that it doesn’t just have to be on a size two model.”
It’s only spring, but Curwen is already preparing for his next runway show while pumping out custom commissions that defy dreams. With 337 yards of silk organza and hundreds of thousands of cut circles going into one look, Curwen’s vision of fantasy fashion is impossible to ignore.
