NIHL Fall 2025 Ready-to-Wear

Ever the philosopher, this season Neil Grotzinger said they were thinking of “things that are really generic being infused with an antagonistic subtext or rejecting themselves in some way.” In plain speak, think of the most ordinary of things cancelling themselves out by becoming extraordinary—or at least a little different.

The entry point for this idea was sublimated prints of things all too familiar for anyone who’s worked on the production and design side of fashion: Factory menu cards one uses to pick out such things as hardware to use on accessories or crystals to apply onto clothing. It’s somewhat of a Hobson’s choice, really, where, offered Grotzinger, “you have all of the options but none of the choices.” If you’ve ever produced an item with a factory you’ll also know that rarely will anything be just right—threads, zippers, buttons, all such things, are always just a little off but they “will do.”

It’s a curious metaphor for the trials and tribulations of getting dressed. Even if Grotzinger’s idea was more specifically grounded in subverting the normalcy of something as anonymous and soulless as the corporate uniform, the concept of looking to negate the homogeneity of the options—but not choices!—in our closets sounds appealing and like a practice worth incorporating into our everyday. So much of the chatter around New York Fashion Week this season was about how so much in fashion at large looks “the same.” But not at Nihl.

The most successful of this season’s experiments was the way Grotinger cut the lining of coats longer than the shells and finished them as bubble hems—they were funky but wearable. The way rectangles and godets attached onto the bottom of paneled aprons made them look like an abstracted version of those trendy corseted tank tops: it was fascinating and made for a sexy, gender-bending situation. Most complicated and equally captivating was a shirting concoction that combined two button-downs joined at the plackets—the under layer was kept almost as is with the top one slashed, its sleeves tangled into itself and creating another bubble effect. It was confusing but engrossing.

Grotzinger returned to the presentation schedule this season, setting up an exhibition at a rental studio in Soho. “I just felt strongly about wanting to do something a little bigger,” said the designer. “During the pandemic and post pandemic I was just trying to keep existing, making collections but struggling to keep up with it all,” Grotzinger continued, “but I feel like I have more of a grip producing collections without it being so difficult.” It’s exciting to merely consider what Grotzinger could do with more money and more support.