BADGLEY MISCHKA 2024 Collection NYFW 2024

Badgley Mischka’s Autumn/Winter 2024 collection draws upon the designer’s “dueling conceits” – this season, the precision and drama of Park Avenue glass towers meets the velvet-lined floral cocoons in those same lobbies to combine realist basics with fantastical adornments.

We discovered the new season at New York Fashion Week on February 10, 2024, and sat down backstage to talk with iconic designer couple Mark Badgley and James Mischka on their signature ageless brand, fresh design challenges this year, and support for each other before the show.

“One hand holds a wool crepe, the other throws crystal beads… It is a dance we love to do, of control and extravagance. We love adornment and fantasy, but we are realists and modernists at heart,” design duo Mark Badgley and James Mischka explain in flowery prose about their latest Autumn/Winter 2024 collection debuted at New York Fashion Week in the Starrett-Lehigh building on February 10, 2024.

This collection for the new season takes inspiration from Park Avenue’s sleek towering glass architecture, combined with the plush velvet and floral accents in those same buildings’ lobbies.

This manifests through an extensive collection of silhouettes ranging from a frilled muted golden gown with an asymmetric shoulder, to a suave metallic dark silver column gown with long sleeves and high neckline embellished with brocade like an armour, to a stately sleeved red crepe maxi length shirt dress shaped gown with a waist tie and sharp lapels paired with matching monochromatic red leather ruched elbow gloves.

Models sported perfectly slick hair, powerful dark eye makeup, and a complementary nude lip to set the tone of the professional yet fashionable woman.

The latest Badgley Mischka collection of flowing dresses and sparkling suits will speak to a wide range of audiences and suit an equal range of events for dressing. When asked about their ideal customer they envision for the brand and these fresh designs, Badgley and Mischka say that they have many various ideal customers.

“We’ve been very lucky that our customers range in age from high schoolers to septuagenarians, and everywhere in between. What’s fun is that it’s the same dress being worn by both those customers – we’ll do a dress and (film director) Sofia Coppola buys it, and then (singer-actress) Barbra Streisand buys it. We never even fully understand that mass-appeal phenomenon ourselves! Our customers are ageless, and they have fun with fashion and accessories, which we love.

There’s that thread of glamour sort of stitched through everything that we do, and these women really respond to that. She could be anybody! She could be any age, in any location… We sell these pieces in Alaska, we sell these pieces to women that live in Paris, we sell these pieces to women that are in Cambodia.

It’s so interesting nowadays (with a more virtual world) as everything is so accessible.” Badgley and Mischka give their customers the canvas through each design, and then women around the world delight them by going one step further to truly make it their own through personal styling and a unique individual sense of taste.

The Autumn/Winter 2024 showcase presents an extensive array of forty-four looks in total, in metallic tones of pewter and dark gold, striking hot pinks and reds, and a touch of cool blues and orchid.

With such a variety of silhouettes and fabrics on offer this season, Badgley and Mischka have a difficult time choosing a personal favourite from the collection when asked if any looks hold an extra-special favour. The duo debates for a moment, then explains: “every look is our favourite – they’re like our children. If they’re not our favourite, they’re not on the runway!”

Finally, a small admittance emerges after a slight pause: “We love all of them…but the last six dresses in the finale are really very special to us. I know exactly the women that are going to buy them, and I can already visualize them at parties, at charity events, at black ties. Those are the ones that are the most dramatic in the collection.”

That being said, the collection holds something for everyone, including looks wearable for a younger fan of the brand or for the slightly more everyday or laid-back occasion. “We have a modern group that we opened the show with that takes our woman to something that’s not so formal. I like a lot of the chic little tweed dresses, and some great little pieces that are really beautiful, easy to wear, and ageless. You can wear them with boots, dress them up or down.”

Badgley Mischka as a brand always keeps their customer in mind even from the start of the design process, and it shows in this confident foresight and palpable excitement over the secret faces the two designers can already clearly envision wrapped in these last six dramatically frilled finale dresses, and the inclusion of opening looks more for the everyday. From open to close, the Badgley Mischka show hits every note.

The designers started the Badgley Mischka line decades ago, with twelve black dresses and one red one. Physically Mark Badgley and James Mischka might be two separate bodies, but the designers certainly operate in unison as one mind to bring delightfully elegant yet playful upscale looks to a celebrity and high-society clientele season after season.

The duo is aware of the value of this intrinsic support in such a tough line of work as the fashion industry, and both smile broadly when speaking about their own support network in the creation of a fresh seasonal line. “It’s funny because we can really be in two places at one time, which is quite useful. We can go to different meetings in different parts of the city, or even sometimes in different parts of the world, and we always regroup at the end of the day. We know that the other one is doing exactly what we would be doing. We don’t have to second guess each other at all.”

Badgley and Mischka continue to delight consumers around the world with their glam looks, and have garnered a steadfast and loyal fanbase of numerous household names throughout the years, such as Jennifer Garner, Carrie Underwood, Queen Latifa, and Taylor Swift.

The designers credit each other in turn for this success: “It’s a luxury to have someone to bounce off of – it can be a very lonely experience (in fashion design.) You can get very insecure, or very depressed, or freaked out alone. When you have a partner in crime, it’s very much like it’s us against the world. You can just go do it, and actually try to enjoy the process.”

For Badgley and Mischka, the newest Autumn/Winter 2024 collection is one more notch in a long and illustrious career in sophisticated chic dressing, providing something for the woman gracing any special occasion, from the red carpet to the society party. With their customers always top of mind and with each other to rely on, we expect to see many successful seasons still to come from the iconic American design duo behind the Badgley Mischka brand.