“Amazing Grace,” by Sally Singer, was originally published in the November 2001 issue of Vogue.
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Unusual times call for unusual measures. In these pages, we offer a preview of American fashion for spring 2002—an exception to our standard practice of showing only designs that are, or will imminently be, available for purchase by the time Vogue lands on the newsstand. The looks here will not be in stores for a few months yet, but the qualities that underlie them—optimism, vivacity, confidence—speak to us with irresistible urgency. Perhaps a special showcasing of work that, under normal circumstances, would have been presented under the tents in Bryant Park, Manhattan, simply gratifies our instinct for patriotic self-expression.
Up until September 11, the New York collections had proceeded with predictable doses of giddiness (Imitation of Christ insisted that the viewers walk down the catwalk while the mod- els occupied the front row) and tedium (why was getting into Marc Jacobs’s show a dismal throwback to the velvet-rope frustrations of the Mike Todd room at the Palladium, circa 1986?). Then came Tuesday. All shows were canceled, and it was not until the following week that the industry felt able to go on, and then only in a sober, scaled-back form. Small groups of editors were invited to no-frills Seventh Avenue showrooms to see a selection of a designer’s key looks, often without music.
