Tory Burch takes her latest collection to the bank for New York Fashion Week show

NEW YORK (AP) — There are certain hallmarks of every Tory Burch fashion show — a spectacular venue, relaxed American sportswear, and a message of female empowerment — and the designer’s Spring/Summer 2026 collection at New York Fashion Week delivered all three.

Burch’s consistent desire to celebrate New York City fuels her motivation to find its hidden gems and landmarks to set the stage for her shows. Monday night’s presentation was at an old bank in Brooklyn, which looked more like a giant church than a former financial institution. Marble floors and extremely high vaulted ceilings created a dramatic backdrop, and giant pillars and arches stretched up to a sparkling gold and silver mosaic ceiling.

“Women are the answer,” the designer said with a smile, as she described which ideas inspired her latest collection. “I wanted to think about femininity and strength and so there are a lot of things that went into that, and I wanted sort of uber luxe, but mixed with worn and familiar,” Burch told The Associated Press in an interview after the show.

She said the collection had “a lot of focus on proportions, dropped waist, and the hip-slung pants and the skirt, and dresses with the dropped waist.”

Models passed bank tables as they strutted the runway in Burch’s muted tones of brown, blue, cream and gray. The most notable design was, indeed, the low waists on pants and skirts.

Skirts hit below the knee — some in leather, others pleated in wool chambray — and swayed under tailored blazers. In her nod to sportswear, more casual looks included fitted silk knit shirts with pointed collars paired with wool pants.

While the palette leaned toward earthy, there were moments of bright colors like a turquoise blue canvas trench coat, and a sunny yellow canvas jacket with a hood. “I wanted optimism, and that’s where the colors came in,” Burch said.

Viscose jersey dresses hugged the body but also were light enough to have movement and popped in bright red and cotton candy pink. “We spent a lot of time thinking about jersey and using it a bit differently, where it celebrated a woman’s body, rather than actually just being about the garment,” Burch said.

Pieces like a hand-beaded cotton and linen top and hand-beaded cashmere sweaters showed off the craftsmanship Burch has said is important to the brand. The show closed with hand-beaded mesh dresses and a hand-pleated silk chiffon and lace dress in dramatic black and gold.

“I wanted it to be about pieces that were so beautifully made and tailored, that you would keep forever,” Burch said.

Celebrities in the front row included Ciara, Naomi Watts, Tessa Thompson, Mindy Kaling, Jessica Alba and Chloe Fineman.

Emma Roberts said she has been “obsessed” with Burch since before she was a teenager. “I remember the feeling of just dying to be able to buy my first pair of Tory Burch flats. So, to now be sitting … front row at her fashion show, this is kind of surreal,” the actor said. “Twelve-year-old me is freaking out!”

A model walks the runway during the Tory Burch spring/summer 2026 fashion show during New York Fashion Week, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

A model walks the runway during the Tory Burch spring/summer 2026 fashion show during New York Fashion Week, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

A model walks the runway during the Tory Burch spring/summer 2026 fashion show during New York Fashion Week, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

A model walks the runway during the Tory Burch spring/summer 2026 fashion show during New York Fashion Week, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Emily Ratajkowski walks the runway during the Tory Burch spring/summer 2026 fashion show during New York Fashion Week, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A 24-year-old man was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of an elderly Thai man whose 2021 killing in San Francisco helped spark a national movement against anti-Asian American violence.

A jury did not find Antoine Watson guilty of murder when it returned a verdict Thursday for the January 2021 attack on 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee. Jurors found Watson guilty on the lesser charges of involuntary manslaughter and assault.

The office of San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins declined to comment, saying that the jury was still empaneled. Jurors will return Jan. 26 to hear arguments on aggravating factors and sentencing will be scheduled once that is completed, the office said in an email.

Vicha Ratanapakdee was out for his usual morning walk in the quiet neighborhood he lived in with his wife, daughter and her family when Watson charged at him and knocked him to the ground. The encounter was captured on a neighbor's security camera. Ratanapakdee died two days later, never regaining consciousness.

His family says he was attacked because of his race, but hate crime charges were not filed and the argument was not raised in trial. Prosecutors have said hate crimes are difficult to prove absent statements by the suspect.

Watson testified on the stand that he was in a haze of confusion and anger at the time of the unprovoked attack, according to KRON-TV. He said he lashed out and didn't know that Ratanapakdee was Asian or elderly.

San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju, whose office defended Watson, extended his sympathies to the victim's family and said the defendant is “fully remorseful for his mistake.”

“While this death was a terrible tragedy and has garnered a lot of press attention, the importance of our legal system is that it gives us a chance to look at the facts in a balanced way,” he said in a statement.

Hundreds of people in five other U.S. cities joined in commemorating the anniversary of Ratanapakdee's death in 2022, all of them seeking justice for Asian Americans who have been harassed, assaulted, and even killed in alarming numbers since the start of the pandemic.

Asians in America have long been subject to prejudice and discrimination, but the attacks escalated sharply after the coronavirus first appeared in late 2019 in Wuhan, China. More than 10,000 hate incidents against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders were reported to the Stop AAPI Hate coalition from March 2020 through September 2021.

The incidents involved shunning, racist taunting and physical assaults.

FILE - Flowers are left with pictures of 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee during a rally attended by hundreds of people on Jan. 30, 2022, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Janie Har, File)

FILE - Monthanus Ratanapakdee holds a photo of her father, 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee, and stands in front of the San Francisco apartment building where he was attacked last year and later died of his injuries, on Jan. 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Terry Chea, File)