Bella Pietro Fall Winter 2025: The Runway as Ballet
Once upon a New York Fashion Week…
An avant-garde ballerina tip-toed across the ethereal stage, pivoting en pointe, a poised performance. The prima donna’s presence initiated the prologue of Izzy Di Pietro’s sold-out 2025 NYFW production. The dancer was guarded by ghostly goddesses draped in white, framing the scene. The models’ lack of wings left them bound to each corner of the stage throughout the show, casting an invisible spell with their gothic arm beckonings.
Pietro’s adoring cult audience was a heavenly haven of alternative angels who watched the grand display of fashion as performance unfolded in awe.
Diaghilev x Pietro
The show was not an industry standard—Diaghilev was a theatrical experience. The Angel Orensanz Foundation on the Lower East Side of Manhattan was the setting: New York City’s oldest synagogue building. The venue is bejeweled with fashion past, emblematically where Alexander McQueen debuted in New York in 1996. His thespian spirit still lingered in innovation and set. An arch of flowers haloed each look under cosmic and cool-toned washes of light, accompanied by ambient electronics and remixed Tchaikovsky classics reverberating between stone walls. Electronic and ambient, the soundtrack was that of a dream.
Pietro’s work is externally and internally influenced. Fashion design was inherited to her ancestrally—wedding couture runs in her veins, of which she has closed commissions (following an additionally sold-out bridal premiere last season). She was originally branded Izzy’s World, where she began developing her signature artistic elements. Her work has been refined throughout her consuming creations, developing her recognizable pieces. She is adamant about not being restrained into specific aesthetics, though her vision is indubitably hers.
Diaghilev references Serge Diaghilev (creator of the Ballet Russes)—an homage to the directing visionary. Pietro is inspired by his costuming and conducting. She is also a cultivator of creatives who work as one to fabricate her fantasy. Each look is entirely intentional, and the commitment to detail is equivalent to worship.
The production was produced by Nikki Fina; beading and chains were bedazzled by Ryann Fitzgerald, and millinery Sidera St. Claire hatched hats. The assortment featured a taxidermized swan on the precipice of flight, a rotating 3d printed crystalline carousel, and a frivolously feathered headdress fit for the pegasus derby. Each headdress was a study of meticulous craftsmanship and surreal beauty.
Attire Attributes
Pietro’s iconic usage of angelic appliqués of lace, drapes with dangling delicate chains, gauzy royal bustles, intricate beading, bustiers bound by ribbon, leotards as cotton-blend canvas, scintillating satin bodices, and additional ballet attire aspects were woven seamlessly into this collection.
The cast of characters was extensive and each model had a distinctive departure down the runway. They waltzed, pirouetted, sashayed, and withered in standard ballet slippers and Demonia stilts. A netted enchantress was entrapped in her own web; she was a spider in silk. A condemned silver siren was weighed down by stringing shackles and strung out on a metal crucifix. A sinister Art Deco bride in a deconstructed and reassembled garment was adorned with additional accents of grieving tulle and feather and applied doily embroidery.
Each ensemble was a complete identity—a conscious costume that intersects with Pietro’s passion for intimates. Raw skin peered through sheer stockings at the inquisitive eyes of Judgement, harmoniously delicate and provocative. Various tops were made entirely of strings of beading: encrusted human forms were the base of the garments that were then decorated. The catwalk was a veritable Eden, dressing the biblical beings in gems of indignity that decidedly revered the body.
Finale
The wonderfully curious Kitty Lever closed the show as the “Queen of the Fae.” A sacrificial bouquet was offered to keep her briefly satiated as she wandered to and fro across the stage in a strapless white ball gown. The drop waist bodice was lined with frills and dripping with crystals and jewels.
The Rococo-esque hoop skirt swung beneath her as she swayed, becoming more frantic as the dragonfly did not get the attention she undoubtedly deserved. Layers of fabric were gathered and pinned into cascading voluminous ruffles—the silhouette of royalty. It was the dress of the crowned divine.
The zenith was reached as the smiling sovereign was carted off the stage shrieking shrilly and with conclusive vengeance. Hereafter, from behind the curtain emerged the elusive designer herself, carried out on a rosy palanquin, drifting through the reverent wake of her pious disciples.
A Looking Glass Upon the Show
The fashion show was radiating with devotion and deliberate detail, a culmination of imaginative minds. From Victorian mourning lace sourced from eBay to cascading serpentine plaits to head toppers individually fabricated for respective looks, the show was a mystical sensation.
This collection was for ravens of the Gothic resurgence, fabulous freaks, and art aficionados. It paid tribute to the intensity and beauty of ballet, and the history of its costuming that consolidated to familiar features. The audience's appreciation of the blood, magic, and craft that stitched the show together was idiosyncratic in its terpsichorean pantomime.
The show was itself a ballet. Models promenaded down the runway in expressive splendor, weaving the story of the forsaken sovereign, embellished and eternally preserved by Izzy Di Pietro. By the hands of her creative clique, through performance, the costumes and their personas came alive.
And so they danced, happily ever after. (Until next season).
Contributing edits by our Winter ‘25 Student Writing Program editor, , with final oversight & edits by Amarissa.
Today’s writer…
Gem is a participant in Fashion Talk's Winter 2025 Student Writing Program. Aligned with our mission to uplift emerging voices in the fashion industry, we’re excited to share their fresh and insightful perspective with our community.
You can get to know them here!
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