There are red carpets, and then there are moments when fashion transcends fabric. At the 2025 New York City Ballet Fall Fashion Gala, Sarah Jessica Parker didn’t simply arrive; she ascended. The actress, philanthropist, and longtime ballet devotee appeared at Lincoln Center in a sculptural masterpiece from Iris van Herpen’s Fall 2025 Haute Couture collection, styled with a pair of black AQUAZZURA 105 Be Mine Sandals — a look so ethereal it felt more like movement than dress.
The gown — a lattice of sheer black mesh layered over a soft nude base — unfurled into floor-length translucent wings that rippled with each step. Crafted from van Herpen’s signature “air fabric,” the design was built using a honeycomb technique that allowed the wings to billow almost imperceptibly, catching the light like a dancer’s breath. It was couture in motion — and Parker, ever the performer, made it feel alive.
Couture in Motion
“I’m so fortunate to wear it,” Parker told Vogue on the carpet, adding that the wings were “so comfortable” and “weigh nothing.” But the deeper weight of the moment was symbolic.
As Vice Chair of the NYC Ballet’s Board of Directors, Parker has spent over a decade bridging the worlds of choreography and couture — co-founding the Fall Fashion Gala in 2012 to pair designers with dancers in a creative pas de deux. This year, that dialogue materialized quite literally on her shoulders.
The Designer Who Turns Air Into Art
Van Herpen, known for merging craftsmanship with science and sculpture, described her Fall 2025 designs as an exploration of morphing forms and energy made visible. For Parker, that philosophy became a metaphor — for art that evolves, for movement that endures, and for the woman who continues to redefine New York glamour.
Standing beside her husband Matthew Broderick, Parker looked serene and radiant, her hair softly twisted into a ballet bun, her jewelry minimal — as though any extra embellishment might interrupt the poetry of the gown. Cameras captured her turning slightly, the wings fanning outward like a quiet crescendo.
The Legacy of a Living Muse
There was a time when the New York City Ballet Gala was simply a night of performances. But under Parker’s guidance, it has become something greater: a conversation between art forms, a reminder that elegance can have velocity.
And so, as the evening lights reflected off her sculptural silhouette, Sarah Jessica Parker didn’t just honor fashion — she embodied its future. Because sometimes, when fashion learns to fly, it looks a lot like her. And because in a city that never stops moving, Sarah Jessica Parker reminds us that true style isn’t about standing still — it’s about taking flight, again and again.
