At the Angel Orensanz Foundation, Art Hearts Fashion powered NYFW with 40+ international designers, the first Cambodian showcase in NYFW history, culturally charged runway statements, and a bold push toward expansion into Asia.

Above: Aras Nancy photographed by Mark Gunter & Eugene Gologursky

New York Fashion Week took on new dimensions this September when Art Hearts Fashion transformed the Angel Orensanz Foundation into a crossroads of heritage, activism, and couture. Over several nights, the platform hosted more than 40 designers spanning continents and identities, including the industry landmark debut of Cambodian designer Almee Couture on the NYFW stage. But the glitz went deeper—AnaOno’s patient-led runway became a resonant protest demanding more investment in breast cancer research, and cultural showcases from Ecuador, Guatemala, and Cambodia brought storytelling to the forefront. As Art Hearts sets eye on Asia and beyond, this season’s NYFW proved that fashion can be global, expressive, and deeply purposeful.

Fashion at Art Hearts NYFW wasn’t just about clothes, it was storytelling in motion. Designers like Aras Nancy fused heritage with spectacle, while Edher Gin’s La Mujer Dormida collection conjured dreamlike forms steeped in cultural motifs. Meanwhile, more theatrical houses like Richard Hallmarq leaned bold and dramatic, introducing animal prints and sculptural silhouettes to punctuate the mood. The stage also welcomed swimwear, streetwear, and eveningwear editions, stretching the definition of what a runway show could be. Underscoring the season’s ethos, the platform balanced landmark glamour names—Giannina Azar, Alexis Monsanto—with emerging talent, allowing experimental lines like Montecristi NYC to share space with established voices. Through those nights at Angel Orensanz, fashion became a global dialogue: layered, diverse, and fiercely expressive.

Art Hearts used the runway as a platform for voice, ancestry, and protest, not simply as glam theater. Most telling was AnaOno’s patient-led presentation: survivors and patients of breast cancer walked intentionally, turning each step into a statement demanding more funding and visibility for cancer research. This show didn’t decorate bodies, it amplified stories. Outside of that, cultural voices echoed through runs from Ecuador, Guatemala, and Peru via designers like Kene Kaya and Textiles D’La Rossa, with live performance elements and indigenous motifs woven into garments. Designers like Aras Nancy mined national symbolism, her Diamonds of Angola collection invoked narratives of resilience and reclamation in the face of extractive histories. Each runway became an act of storytelling, where garments weren’t just worn, but read: identity, memory, and purpose stitched into every seam.

As the lights dimmed at Angel Orensanz, it was clear this NYFW chapter wasn’t meant to end, it’s meant to echo. With the first Cambodian designer ever on a New York runway, cultural showcases from Ecuador and Guatemala, and a runway that merged activism with artistry, Art Hearts Fashion cemented itself as more than a fashion event, it’s a movement engine. As the platform prepares to take its vision to Asia, it carries with it the ambition of not just showing clothes but elevating voices. The designers who walked under its banner now carry cultural legacies forward, and the audiences they reach will remember not just what was worn, but what was said. In a crowded fashion ecosystem, Art Hearts’ insistence on storytelling, intention, and global inclusion sets it apart, and it redefines how fashion can influence culture for seasons to come.