Public School NYC Returns to NYFW with Everything Is Now Collection

Public School NYC’s runway return felt calibrated rather than celebratory - Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne presented Everything Is Now as an exercise in urban armor, favoring weighty fabrics, razor-sharp pleats and utility details you could actually wear in the city. That restraint will please craft purists and frustrate fans of spectacle; I came down squarely on the side of craft.

Stepping into the Chelsea Factory on February 11, a standing-room-only crowd witnessed a room that "didn’t lean on runway theatrics; instead, it carried a sharp, intentional electricity." Bleumag’s backstage diary called the moment cultural, and the air backstage and in the house felt thick with anticipation as models moved from a surgical prep to house lights.

The relaunch arrived after a seven-year pause. GQ reported that Public School had "quietly closed its doors" around 2018 with no formal announcement, and Style noted the return after a seven-year hiatus. Maxwell Osborne told reporters backstage, "It felt like a matter of when we were going to come back and show." Dao-Yi Chow offered a lighter note before the walk, saying, "I guess that's what you get for being old, being the OGs." Chow and Osborne have also launched a Public School Substack to document the rebuilding process.

The collection itself wore its thesis plainly. Titled Everything Is Now, the season repeated a single "carpe diem" graphic and landed in a palette Bleumag described as "almost entirely black and grey with the only pops of color being a vibrant royal blue, camel and passionate red." Fabrics read heavy and grounded - Bleumag singled out "heavy-gauge wools and structured nylons" - while silhouettes balanced oversized outerwear with the precision of layered knits and razor-sharp pleats. Each look, the diary observed, "felt like a study in chic urban armor."

Backstage felt deliberate in its choreography. Bleumag wrote, "If the runway is the final statement, backstage with TRESemmé is the thesis." TRESemmé’s lead stylist Lacy Redway anchored the beauty direction; "Watching Lacy work; there is no wasted movement. She treats hair with the mindset of an engineer," the piece noted, and that sleek, controlled hair ensured beauty never competed with tailoring.

Small details signaled the label’s cultural literacy. Style reported many models in Nike ACG boots customized with closures lifted from double-monkstrap derbies, while the soundtrack included "Losing My Edge" and front-row scenes featured 1 OAK rainmaker Richie Akiva’s phone "blowing up." Outside the show, WWD has traced the duo’s lead-up activity: a May 2025 Instagram post showed a Justin Jefferson custom under the Public School label - a glen plaid suit with a high-waisted double-pleat pant and cape - and industry group KFN teased a project with the designers for its inaugural season.

Public School’s pedigree remains intact: Chow and Osborne founded the label in 2008 after stints at Sean John and collected the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund in 2013, the CFDA menswear award in 2014 and the International Woolmark Prize for menswear in 2015. Harper’s Bazaar quoted the show notes saying, "This is exactly where we long to be. At the precipice of change," and IG responses ranged from "Very solid return" to heart emojis.

With a Substack chronicling the rebuild and KFN-linked projects on the horizon, Public School’s measured relaunch signals a commitment to craft-first menswear rather than spectacle. For now, Everything Is Now stakes the brand’s claim back in New York - precise, grown-up and deliberately tuned to the city’s weather and rhythm.