Public School Returns to NYFW with Everything Is Now and Nike-Jordan Collaborations

Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne reclaimed Public School’s place on the New York Fashion Week schedule with a fall 2026 show under the banner "Everything Is Now" and a relaunch that paired runway immediacy with business moves: a three-day pop-up at High Line Nine from February 12 to 14 and promises of all-new Nike and Jordan collaborations. Hypebeast reported the pop-up at 507 West 27th Street and 508 W 28th St and framed the relaunch as tied to an e-commerce restart and direct-to-consumer push.

On the runway the mood was tailored and kinetic: Harper’s Bazaar’s show notes described "sharp tailored separates that were subtly deconstructed and cleverly manipulated," language echoed by Ebony’s take that the collection was "rooted in Black urban intellectualism, New York grit, and the kind of tailoring that reads like armor." The designers leaned into immediacy visually — cropped jackets with tightened waists, trousers that suggested movement, and surfaces that alternated matte suiting cloth with faintly distressed finishes — a practical interplay of streetwear energy and sartorial structure.

Backstage the founders sounded both wry and resolute. Dao-Yi Chow joked, "I guess that's what you get for being old, being the OGs," and Maxwell Osborne said, "It felt like a matter of when we were going to come back and show." Samuel Hine’s front-row reporting captured the show’s texture: Richie Akiva’s phone buzzing in the front row and "Losing My Edge" on the soundtrack signaled a crowd attuned to cultural callbacks as much as to cut and fabric. The designers also plan to chronicle the rebuild on a Public School Substack, making the relaunch process public rather than private.

The business pivot was explicit. Dao-Yi Chow told Hypebeast, "We are focusing on a direct-to-consumer model through our own stores and our e‑commerce site, which launches tomorrow. We’re building a sustainable business that we can eventually pass down to our families and our kids. That’s the shift." Hypebeast also reported exclusive details about forthcoming Nike and Jordan collaborations; GQ supplied a concrete styling note from the runway, observing that many models wore Nike ACG boots customized with closures lifted from double-monkstrap derbies, a literal meeting of athletic utility and menswear tradition.

Public School’s return carries institutional weight. Vogue’s archive reminds that Chow and Osborne met at Sean John, relaunched the label as a made-in-New York brand in 2012, won the 2013 Fashion Fund prize and the CFDA Swarovski Award for Menswear, and were named CFDA Menswear Designer of the Year in 2014. That pedigree frames the quiet closure "around 2018" and the seven-year absence as interruption rather than erasure.

The pop-up at High Line Nine includes programming beyond product: Ebony reported custom embroidery, tailor-made suiting, and conversation series events across the Feb 12–14 run. Together with the e-commerce relaunch and the Substack, those elements make the comeback feel less like a one-off spectacle and more like a staged, accountable rebuild. Public School’s return is both a sartorial statement and a business manifesto: refined tailoring retooled for the street, sold through the brand’s own channels, and narrated in public as it unfolds.