The Best View of New York

New York is rarely seen as a shining city on a hill (or island) these days, what with news story after news story about rats and subway crime and potential problems with the Adams administration. So it was unexpectedly stirring on Sunday afternoon to experience the city from a different perspective — as a place of potential and possibility, courtesy of Off-White.

Or courtesy of Off-White’s first New York show. The label left its usual slot on the Paris schedule to come to the city — specifically to Pier 2 in Brooklyn Bridge Park, home of community basketball, ping pong and handball courts, with views of the Statue of Liberty on one side, the Brooklyn Bridge on the other, and the soaring skyscrapers of Wall Street just in front.

An equally New York kind of crowd had come to see it: the tennis stars Aryna Sabalenka, fresh off her triumph at the U.S. Open, and Frances Tiafoe; the filmmaker Lena Waithe and the actor Issa Rae; and Flavor Flav, the former Public Enemy rapper who sponsored the U.S. women’s water polo team, and Ashleigh Johnson, the team goalie.

(Olympians are turning into something of a front row trend at New York Fashion Week: The track phenomenon Gabby Thomas and the gymnast Sunisa Lee were at Tommy Hilfiger’s nautical stripe-a-rama on the old Staten Island Ferry, and Ms. Lee made an appearance at Brandon Maxwell.)