WE ARE THE BLUEPRINT: ISEDER’S ART DECO LOVE LETTER TO NEW YORK CITY

Written by Lily Moskowitz
Photos by Kaden Bard Dawson
09.24.2025

Taylor-Paige Garvin and Sharon Mishiev would like you to know that they are native New Yorkers. Their fourth collection for Iseder just hit the runway at Storage Art Gallery in Tribeca, and it’s an absence-makes-the-heart-grow-fonder homage to the city’s spaces and faces.

While the brand’s media presence has skyrocketed since last season¹ the design duo’s been out of town. Mishiev just completed his foundation year at Central Saint Martins in London, and Garvin plans to follow suit. Traveling back and forth between the UK and Manhattan, the young ingenues have caught a bout of homesickness – or maybe lovesickness – for the place where it all began. The resulting collection captures the spirit of New York with architectural patterning, community-curated production, and an astutely executed sense for the je ne sais quois that gives the city its coolness factor².

“Being overseas makes us appreciate all of the small details that we’re missing from the city. And that’s why all of the architectural details are brought into context… We were looking at all the art deco references, all the sharp edges of the buildings, and everything was symmetrical.”

At its most literal, architecture appeared through the recurring print of an abstract skyscraper, silhouetted and doubled over an invisible horizon. Perhaps gesturing to the twinned landscapes of New York and London, the motif captured the devastatingly self-referential quality of living and working (and at times struggling) as an artist in an art capital city. Industrial tones of obsidian, concrete, and charcoal embodied the muted palette of the archetypical cosmopolitan. Accents of lacquered bronze evoked metal, midnight, bling.

But Iseder is a brand celebrated for their inventive construction, and it was here that they most successfully channeled the dimensions of urban sprawl.

Sculptured cuts incorporated the landmark elements of the Manhattan skyline with a subtlety reminiscent of lingering memory or smog-swooned nostalgia. A paneled skirt mimicked the jutting tiers of the Empire State, the garment suspended from the body as if erected on its own spatial plane. Pale pink bodysuits with padded, shell-like shoulders recalled the iconic sunburst arches of the Chrysler Building - a design touch replicated elsewhere in the fanned draping and swagging that adorned pleated silk dresses and tafetta drop crotch pantaloons.

And yes, it was so art deco. References to the twentieth-century design style cut straight to the point, literally. All angels were acute: plunging necklines, notched collars, tapered trousers, and elongated basque waists. Sheer silk made a truly tempting vouch for the return of the V neck, while a navy and tangerine sheath dress replicated the shape in interlocking chevrons. Elsewhere diagonals appeared through negative space, with bandeaus and belly-button-bearing peplums that slanted the skin into triangular segments. The overall effect was sharp in both shape and finish; silhouettes polished, the tailoring precise, styling cohesive and firm.

Garvin and Mishiev have been designing together since 2021, and their synchronicity is such that they’re practically finishing each other’s sentences. They explain their concepting in ecstatic unison, sharing that “it was a good mix of modern New York City versus a century ago, a decade ago, all in one. Three big key periods of New York culture. The 1920s, 2010s, and present day.”

The result was an exquisite timelessness. While the eveningwear floated with that suave elegance specific to 1920s glamour, the tunic tops and slim blazers felt devastatingly modern. It was cool-girl casual. Understated and refined. Luxury without the decadence, style detached from trend. Clothing intensely wearable, straddling the elusive line between what is fundamental and what is frivolous, that slice of perfection when a garment can be worn to three functions back-to-back and somehow feel correct at each. Iseder is not just pining after New York City but catering to its demands; wardrobing a blueprint for the working artist, the practical creative, the ageless figure studied in aesthetic yet immune to its noise. It is undeniably their most sophisticated collection yet.

Also taken into consideration was the architecture of the venue itself. In a spark of post-show-clarity, Sharon informed his Instagram story that the blank space / white wall of it all was a response to feedback from previous seasons, when the collection was defined by the glamour of the surroundings. This time around, the tabula rasa gallery atmosphere allowed nothing to interfere with the focus: the actual clothes. The salon-style presentation felt fitting. Stripped back to the basics, classic, classy, just cramped enough for the room to buzz with chat, just intimate enough for everyone in the crowd to realize they recognize everyone else here. A way to physically bring us closer³.To one another. To the details.

Which by the way were impeccably thorough. The accessories reinforced the collection’s divine geometry with modular cuff bracelets in slatted rods, cornice-like and covetable. A pair of what appeared to be vinyl legwarmers ziplocced the calves in a transparent veil. Topical, since New York is both locked in and stiflingly honest. Chevron pendants came in a range of broaches⁴, belt buckles, and rings so good I asked Garvin how soon they’ll be expanding their ready-to-wear for me to buy out their jewelry. (It’s soon, thank god. They’ve confirmed this will be the focus of their next six months.)

Taking notes from the machine-made craze of the art deco movement, the laser cut acrylic fabrications were developed by core members of Iseder’s team, which is the kind that feels like a blended family or a feverish Venn Diagram. There’s the stylist who also leads casting. The convergence of four musicians who played together for the first time⁵. The appearance of The Saw Lady, who busks at the subway, the runway cameo of NYC royalty Sophia Lamar. Everyone wears three to five hats. Some of them live together. It is the quintessential element of New York, intersections and cross-sections and hyphenation, biomes that begin and end with The People Who Make It What It Is.

“Honestly, that’s what we wanted: to have the street performers here and all of these characters from daily walks of life. Iconic people holding down the culture in New York.”

Iseder is the people’s princess. You heard it here first.

FOOTNOTES

We feel obligated to note that Timothee Chalamet wore Iseder’s iconic NY ring for Saturday Night Live promo. Whether or not his celebrity status is the end-all-be-all metric of success, his status as a born and bred Manhattanite certainly counts for something here.
There is genuinely no other way to describe this quality. It’s that thing about New York that knows exactly what it wants, that rings firm, unrelenting, vital. Desirable just as much for its glamour as its grit. It’s the coolness factor. Sorry! To be cringe is to be free.
We were close enough to snatch one of the rod rings off a model’s finger. *Editor’s note: Must stop mentioning your recurring impulse to take the clothes home, touch the clothes or feel the fabric on the runway. They will think you are a liability and this would really blow.
A forecast / request that Iseder singlehandedly bring broaches back en vogue. There is nothing more fabulous than a versatile little pin.
Someone more versed than myself in music needs to do a full review of the show’s score IMMEDIATELY! Composer Willow Skyfin’s live debut had bells, guitar, the harmonium (?!) and of course The Saw Lady playing her saw… It took us Somewhere. That we need to go again. Please put the track on streaming.

CREDITS

PHOTO Kaden Bard Dawson
WORDS Lily Moskowitz

CREATIVE DIRECTION Sharon Mishiev Taylor-Paige Garvin
DESIGN Sharon Mishiev Taylor-Paige Garvin

WOMENSWEAR CASTING Jack Pekarsky
MENSWEAR CASTING Amos Jin
CASTING ASSISTANCE Jesus Christ Superstar

STYLING Claire Wise Jack Pekarsky
STYLING ASSISTANCE James Stoller Noelle Celeste Minnie Isabella Sanchez Steven Biafry
ACESSORY DEVELOPMNENT Sharon Mishiev Taylor-Paige Garvin Jack Pekarsky Claire Wise
ACCESSORY ENGINEERING Jack Pekarsky Nicholas James Stoller
PR Claire Wise

TEAM Mo Zalt Ben Brill Rayan Joon Samir Kouhestani Rachel Sacksner

COMPOSED AND PRODCUED BY Willow Skyfin
SAW PERFORMED BY Natalia “Saw Lady” Paruz
GUITAR Cancel
HARMONIUM Ryan Jaeger
MIXING & ADDITIONAL PRODUCTION Grant Lepping

MUA LEAD Tati Smalls
MUA ASSISTANT Ronelle Charlotte James Kendall
HAIR LEAD Alexis Shan
HAIR ASSISTANT Mari
MOVEMENT DIRECTOR Andrea Soto

MODELS Liv Harley Luhkell Madam Océane Mariannna Luke Sydney Lili Drew Sasha Meelah Lunetta Sophia Wenshi Ella Gabriel Erica Tashi Diedre Kuru Brendan Ise Arianna