At Tassel NYFW, Everybody Had a Seat at the Table by NWO Sparrow

Tassel didn’t just talk about inclusivity. It put it on the guest list, on the panel, and on the runway. By NWO Sparrow

By the back half of New York Fashion Week, the rooms start to run together. Same step-and-repeat, same front-row choreography, same wall of phones raised when the first look clears the curtain. So when I made my way down to FIDI Creatives for Tassel, the debut showcase from Les Adore Productions, I came in curious and a little guarded. I left convinced I had just witnessed the most complete room of the entire week, and a sharp reminder of what fashion is actually supposed to be for.

Real Talk Before the Runway

Before a single model stepped out, Les Adore did something most shows never bother with , they asked us to sit down and listen. The evening opened with a conversation moderated by Amina Salahou alongside fashion and beauty creators Sofi, known to her followers as The Oddity, and Fernanda Ramirez. The subjects were heavy in the best way. Confidence. Getting past the hurdles life throws at you. Believing you are more than your face. And surviving the pressure cooker that is the social media beauty space.

Here is what stuck with me. Nobody was clip farming. In an era where every panel feels engineered for a thirty-second vertical video, these women spoke to the audience, not at it. The advice was practical and honest, the kind you get from an older cousin who has already walked the road ahead of you, not from a brand deck. You could feel the room lean in. By the time the lights shifted for the runway, the conversation had done its job. We were not just there to look at clothes. We understood who the clothes were for.

A Runway With Range

Chunni set the tone with handmade pieces from India, garments where the craft speaks before you even get close. There is an intention in handwork that a factory line cannot fake, and you could feel the hours in every piece that passed.

Then the energy shifted west. Los Angeles-based Kymi brought colorful matching spring sweatsuits for women, coordinated sets that live comfortably on the block, at brunch, or at the airport gate. It was comfort that does not apologize, and color that does not ask permission. Easy to wear, harder to forget.

For me, the standout of the night was Nokshi New York. The New York designer showcased striking pieces for women largely in the Muslim community, firmly in the modest fashion lane. Too often that market gets treated as a niche or an afterthought. Nokshi put it center stage and made zero compromises in either direction. The pieces stayed true to the community they serve while proving, without question, that modest can be fashionable, fly, and cool. Faith and style were never in conflict on that runway, and watching women in the audience see themselves reflected in those looks was a moment in itself.

Cleah Jolie closed it out with bridal and marital fashion in all white. These gowns were modern in their lines, with hints of tradition sewn deliberately into the construction, a balance a lot of bridal designers chase and few actually catch. Then came the full circle moment. Fernanda Ramirez, the same woman who opened the evening talking about believing in more than your beauty, returned to the stage modeling one of Cleah Jolie's wedding gowns. And she wore it well. The message and the garment arrived in the same person, and the room felt it.

The Room Was the Statement

What elevated Tassel beyond a good debut was the crowd itself. Women from India, from across the United States, of every race, culture, and faith, all in one space, blending without any friction at all. Fashion loves to talk about inclusivity on a mood board. Les Adore built it into the guest list. Nothing about it felt like a box being checked. It felt like a community that already knew it belonged together and was finally given the right room to gather in.

I have covered a lot of shows. Plenty of them had bigger budgets, louder names, and longer lines outside. Few had this much clarity of purpose. Les Adore Productions made the conversation and the collection tell the same story, style belongs to everybody, and confidence is the first thing you put on.

For a debut, Tassel did not feel like a first draft. It felt like a statement of intent. I walked out impressed, inspired, and already curious about what Les Adore does for an encore.

PHOTO CREDITS TO : Maggie Zhang @maggiezhangggg / Slma Photography @slma.photography