An Ignoble Experiment: Men Who Actually Get Women

By Bianca Betancourt, CNN

Welcome to the latest edition of Big Style, a portal to a world where clothing meets culture. This week, CNN style editor Bianca Betancourt sends a dispatch from the frontlines of New York Fashion Week.

Have thoughts, questions or feedback? Reach us here: bigstyle@cnn.com

Mentioned in this issue: NYFW (obviously), being pretty and powerful, millennial men designing for labels founded by women, the rarity of American heritage, Meghan Markle, ’80s exuberance and fashion dogs.

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WES GORDON KNOWS WHAT WOMEN WANT

Creative director Wes Gordon after the Carolina Herrera Fall-Winter 2026 fashion show earlier this year. (Heather Khalifa/AFP/Getty Images)

There are few pillars of New York fashion quite like Carolina Herrera. Founded by the Venezuelan American designer in 1981, the brand has long stood for high glamour and femininity, but also — crucially — power. There’s a reason Hollywood’s red carpet warriors, politicians, first ladies and even royalty turn to the house when they need to conjure sartorial strength. Hillary Clinton’s closet appears to be jam-packed with the brand’s power suits and who can forget the peach off-the-shoulder dress worn by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, for her first Trooping the Color when she and Harry were still working royals. For the last eight years, the Chicago-born creative director Wes Gordon has carried the responsibility of designing for the modern-day Herrera wearer.

“American fashion is light on heritage houses and Herrera is something very special,” Gordon says. The 39-year-old is casual in a navy T-shirt, speaking from his Manhattan design studio, where he and his team have been working long hours ahead of the brand’s 45th anniversary show.

Monday’s show will reference some of Herrera’s earliest designs, including looks from her 1981 debut. “These images are simultaneously feminine and powerful,” he says. “There’s nothing demure. There’s nothing shy. There’s nothing meek. There’s nothing apologetic about them — just like Mrs. Herrera herself.”

Carolina Herrera with the first "Herrera Bride" during her Fall 1981 show. (John Bright/Tony Palmieri/WWD/Penske Media via Getty Images)

So how do you create clothes that make you feel both pretty and powerful all while keeping a rare American heritage brand alive? Here’s what Gordon told me when we spoke earlier this week:

“I don’t think that the word commercial is a bad word and I don’t think that the word pretty is a frivolous insult. On the contrary, I try to design clothes that a woman will want to buy and wear and I try to design clothes that will make her feel pretty and beautiful. That is my goal. When I’m in fittings like today, and looking at the pieces on a model, it’s simultaneously fantasy, but it’s also very grounded in reality. I’m really thinking, Who is this person? Can she do what she needs to do, and does she feel amazing doing it?”

Pamela Anderson made an appearance at the 2026 Venice Film Festival in a lush lilac dress by Wes Gordon for Carolina Herrera. (Stephane Cardinale/Corbis/Getty Images)

Lauryn Hill performing at the 2026 Grammy Awards in a voluminous black ballgown by Wes Gordon for Carolina Herrera. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)

“Herrera is not a monochromatic army of clothes that we produce. It’s a rainbow. It’s a spectrum. The ultimate goal is that any woman can walk in and find something that speaks to her and amplifies who she is on the inside.”

“It’s about joy — it’s about a shoulder! This was the early ’80s, the dawn of a decade about exuberance and glamour, and she really played a big role in establishing that aesthetic vocabulary.”

Models Carla Araque and Iman pose in two gowns from the 1981 presentation. (Fairchild Archive/WWD/Penske Media via Getty Images)

“What’s remained true since the dawn of fashion is that people want to have an emotional response to clothing. They want to put it on and feel transformed. They want to feel like a better version of themselves. They want something that makes them smile.”

“To sit as a designer and try to magically predict what is the trend of the next five years or how are women going to evolve? Just sit and try to make something that looks beautiful. Because if you’re able to do that, it will absolutely resonate.”

The definition of a shoulder! (Fairchild Archive/WWD/Penske Media via Getty Images)

NOT YOUR MOTHER’S DVF WRAP DRESS

A new take on the wrap dress. (Ik Aldama)

Speaking of millennial men designing under the name of badass women… Henry Zankov’s debut as the first-ever creative director of Diane Von Furstenburg was one of the most anticipated shows this season.

The Russian American has quietly worked his way up the ranks on design teams at Donna Karan and Christopher John Rogers, and seems primed to steer the DVF brand into the future. If early indications are anything to go by, his vision expands well beyond your mother’s DVF wrap dress. On the High Line on Thursday morning, sultry chiffon gowns, six-inch chunky heel pumps and sexy, slouchy suits told a fresh story.

A first look at Henry Zankov's debut collection as creative director for Diane Von Furstenberg. (Ik Aldama)

Funky knits! (Ik Aldama)

Zankov’s fashion week isn’t over. In the coming days, he has another show for his namesake label, known for spectacular textured knits and a playful approach to layering bright colors, graphic prints and sequins. Consider it a big/little sister/kindred spirits sort of situation.

Ahead of his show, I asked how his vision for the two brands interact. “There’s definitely similarities. They both very much move through life at their own pace. They’re definitely very much extremely curious and open,” Zankov said. While both “share a strong sense of color and a visual vocabulary,” there is one big difference, he said. “I think Zankov is a little bit more freaky. It’s a little bit more subversive and maybe cerebral. And I think DVF is really all about confidence and seduction and effortlessness.”

An Ignoble Experiment

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2026/09/12

Men Who Actually Get Women

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