NYFW, King Princess, and the Morose Charm of a Severed Animal Claw

rodeo creator x Maeve Steele (@maevesteele)

*note from rodeo team*

At Rodeo, we love when our community peels back the layers of Fashion Week beyond the runways. Singer-songwriter and writer Maeve Steele (@maevesteele) captures that perfectly here — weaving King Princess’s new album, a Tribeca loft presentation, and the strange magic of a severed animal claw into one reflection on why we need fashion, art, and feeling in the first place.

Xx,

team rodeo

*P.S. Still don’t have the app? Bold of you. Fix that below 💅*
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On the Friday of Fashion Week, I opened my phone to find that the new King Princess album had dropped. I listened on the subway as I observed my fellow commuters. I wondered which strangers were FIT students on their way to some unpaid, fashion related internship - ready to topple over with garment bags and Miranda Priestly style commands just for a measly line on their resume. Who would emerge that very evening from a cocoon of glam like a runway ready butterfly, mewing for flash photos and (I imagine) describing some show as ‘truly inspired’. I should clarify that the Friday of Fashion Week is actually day two of the official event, because NYFW runs from Thursday to Tuesday. Why? Because they can! “It’s chic!” the fashion gods whisper while scoffing at our 9-5, Monday through Friday work weeks.

My friends and I debriefed the KP album as the morning went on. “It makes me want to chug a beer and stand on a table in the dead of winter” my friend (special mention Teddy Staley) said. “It’s like...angsty cozy?”

That feeling stuck with me all morning as I mentally rehashed the show from the night before (read: tried to curate an instagram post from the night before). I had attended Contessa Mills s2026 presentation in a Tribeca loft. Models stood on whimsically lush platforms as guests meandered through the Manhattan high-rise adorned with crystals, draped garments, and what I believe was multiple severed animal claws.

Again, the angsty cozy moniker rang true. The collection has a touch of darkness to it. An angsty artistry, that almost sets you on edge with the devilish world it introduces through the shifting of fabric and intimately placed beading. Like Wednesday Addams at a burlesque show. But there’s also something cozy about it. Bustiers reminiscent of pieces some of our great great grandmothers would have worn, silhouettes that remind me of 1950 pin ups. It feels cozy because it’s tinged with familiarity, timeless in its inspiration, but also just because it’s beautiful.

It’s easy to reduce Fashion Week to a playground of consumerism, where socialites and influencers attend sceney soirees just for the photo ops. But I thought about how an album, serendipitously released the next day, made me feel the same way as a show. Fashion is art; it’s identity flipped inside out. It guides so much of how we move through the world, so intertwined with music and every other way we express ourselves. Fashion Week, despite whatever pitfalls can be ascribed to it, is another way the physical representation of feelings - some we didn’t even know existed - can be brought into our lives. And that’s really why we need art.

I hope everyone has an angsty cozy fall!